What are the respective roles of the upper and lower social levels at the party

.......The narrator calls attention from time to time class distinctions. For example, at a New Year's Eve party, the well-to-do participate in the activities while lowlier persons attend only as observers, as the narrator points out: "Already Mr. Macey and a few other privileged villagers, who were allowed to be spectators on these great occasions, were seated on benches placed for them near the door; and great was the admiration and satisfaction in that quarter when the couples had formed themselves for the dance. . ." (Chapter 12).

.......Another passage that underscores class differences is the following: "It was the rural fashion of that time for the more important members of the congregation to depart first, while their humbler neighbors waited and looked on, stroking their bent heads or dropping their curtsies to any large ratepayer who turned to notice them" (Chapter 16).