Characters:
ADAM TRUEMAN: a farmer from Catteraugus
COUNT JOLIMAITRE: a fashionable European Importation
COLONEL HOWARD: an Officer in the U. S. Army.
MR. TIFFANY: a New York merchant.
T. TENNYSON TWINKLE: a modern poet
AUGUSTUS FOGG: a drawing room appendage
SNOBSON: a rare species of confidential clerk
ZEKE: a colored servant
MRS. TIFFANY: a lady who imagines herself fashionable.
PRUDENCE: a maiden lady of a certain age.
MILLINETTE: a French lady’s maid
GERTRUDE: a governess
SERAPHINA TIFFANY: a Belle
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Ball Room
A Plot Summary:
A milliner turned respectable wife of high society, Mrs. Tiffany urges her daughter Seraphina to snag a husband of particular grace and class, the “Count” Jolimaitre, and to ignore the poet Twinkle except as a recipient of patronage. Jolimaitre is a fraud, and recognized as such by the maid Millinette, but nevertheless assumes all the affections of a fashionable gentleman in order to further his interests, much to the chagrin of Adam Trueman, a Yankee, who eschews both Mrs. Tiffany and Jolimaitre from the first introductions – or lack thereof. Trueman attempts to set things straight by confronting Mr. Tiffany, but discovers the gentleman too is compromised by fashion. Mr. Tiffany has committed a forgery and faces blackmail from his clerk called Snobson, who wants Seraphina as his own wife. Seraphina is particular to the Count, the Count pursues all the women, Prudence pursues Trueman, Millinette has a torrid history with Jolimaitre, Gertrude believes she loves Twinkle, and Colonel Howard is in love with Gertrude.
Despite financial troubles, Mrs. Tiffany insists on throwing a ball and invites the Count to attend. Gertrude, after overhearing a conversation between the count and the maid, attempts to reveal Jolimaitre as a fraud but gets caught alone with him, a transgression that gets her thrown out of the house. Trueman solves the issue between Tiffany and Snobson by pointing out that the two are equally compromised, and reveals the truth about Jolimaitre’s identity. The ending wraps up with Millinette engaged to marry Jolimaitre, and Gertrude to Colonel Howard, who shares in Trueman’s American ideals. Finally, Trueman resolves to assist the Tiffany’s with their financial difficulties on the conditions that they cease overvaluing fashion in their lives and that Mr. Tiffany sends the women in his family to live in the countryside.