Firmly narrowing upward from this wealthy but inconspicuous substratum was the compact and dominant group which the Mingotts, Newlands, Chiverses and Mansons so actively represented. Most people imagined them to be the very apex of the pyramid; but they themselves (at least those of Mrs. Archer's generation) were aware that, in the eyes of the professional genealogist, only a still smaller number of families could lay claim to that eminence.

從這個富有卻不引人注目的底部堅固地向上收縮，便是由明戈特家族、紐蘭家族、奇弗斯家族及曼森家族代表的那個舉足輕重的緊密群體。在多數人的想象中，他們便是金字塔的頂端了，然而他們自己（至少阿切爾太太那一代人）卻明白，在職業系譜學家的心目中，只有為數更少的幾個家族才有資格享有那份顯赫。

"Don't tell me," Mrs. Archer would say to her children, "all this modern newspaper rubbish about a New York aristocracy. If there is one, neither the Mingotts nor the Mansons belong to it; no, nor the Newlands or the Chiverses either. Our grandfathers and great- grandfathers were just respectable English or Dutch merchants, who came to the colonies to make their fortune, and stayed here because they did so well. One of your great-grandfathers signed the Declaration, and another was a general on Washington's staff, and received General Burgoyne's sword after the battle of Saratoga. These are things to be proud of, but they have nothing to do with rank or class. New York has always been a commercial community, and there are not more than three families in it who can claim an aristocratic origin in the real sense of the word."

阿切爾太太經常對孩子們說，“不要相信現在報紙上關于紐約有個貴族階層的胡說八道。假如有的話，屬于它的既不是明戈特家族，也不是曼森家族，更不是紐蘭或奇弗斯家族。我們的祖父和曾祖父僅僅是有名望的英國或荷蘭商人，他們來到殖民地發家致富，因為干得特別出色而留在了這里。你們的一位曾祖簽署過《獨立宣言》，另一位是華盛頓參謀部的一名將軍，他在薩拉托加之役后接受了伯戈因將軍的投降。這些事情是應該引以為榮的，不過這與身份、階級毫無關系。紐約向來都是個商業社會，按字面的真正含義，能稱得上貴族出身的不超過3個家族。”

Mrs. Archer and her son and daughter, like every one else in New York, knew who these privileged beings were: the Dagonets of Washington Square, who came of an old English county family allied with the Pitts and Foxes; the Lannings, who had intermarried with the descendants of Count de Grasse, and the van der Luydens, direct descendants of the first Dutch governor of Manhattan, and related by pre-revolutionary marriages to several members of the French and British aristocracy.

跟紐約所有的人一樣，阿切爾太太與她的兒子、女兒知道擁有這一殊榮的人物是誰：華盛頓廣場的達戈內特夫婦。他們出身于英國古老的郡中世家，與皮特和福克斯家族有姻親關系；蘭寧家族，他們與德格拉斯伯爵的后代近親通婚；還有范德盧頓一家，他n］是曼哈頓首任荷蘭總督的直系后代，獨立戰爭前與法國及英國的幾位貴族有姻親關系。

The Lannings survived only in the person of two very old but lively Miss Lannings, who lived cheerfully and reminiscently among family portraits and Chippendale; the Dagonets were a considerable clan, allied to the best names in Baltimore and Philadelphia; but the van der Luydens, who stood above all of them, had faded into a kind of super-terrestrial twilight, from which only two figures impressively emerged; those of Mr. and Mrs. Henry van der Luyden.

蘭寧家族目前只剩下兩位年邁卻很活躍的三寧小姐。她們喜歡懷舊，興致勃勃地生活在族人的畫像與切賓代爾式的家具中間；達戈內特是個了不起的家族，他們與巴爾的摩和費城最著名的人物聯了姻；而范德盧頓家雖然地位比前兩家都高，但家道已經敗落，成了殘留在地面上的一抹夕照，目前能給人留下深刻印象的只有兩個人物，即亨利·范德盧頓先生與他的太太。