“And Mr. Davis paid me a compliment at the expense of the truth, so the account is squared,” the elder lady said, serenely.

“Well, Mr. Davis is here himself by this time, and you shall talk it out with him,” Mrs. Rodney retorted, as a rustle at the door announced new-comers.  A half-dozen ladies came trooping in, among them Mrs. Davis and several of the Cabinet ladies.

“We heard you were here, Madame Gannat,” the President’s wife murmured, graciously.  “And since you wouldn’t come to us, we have come to you.”

Mrs. Gannat arose to receive the great lady, and when she had exchanged salutations with the rest she presented Jack.

“Ah! the hero of the Rosedale affair,” and as Mrs. Davis said this she looked keenly at the young man.  She was, he owned, an extremely graceful woman, of a mature beauty, admirable manner, and, as she talked, he remarked keen intelligence, with an occasional evidence of reading, if not high education.  She was dressed in simpler taste than her “court,” as it was the fashion then to style the Cabinet group.  A few jewels were half hidden in the rare lace that covered her bodice, but she was ungloved, and in no sense in the full-dress understood in the North, at a gathering of the sort.  The talk became general.  Jack, not knowing the personages, simply listened.  There was animated discussion as to whether Mistress Judge this, and Mistress General that, or Mistress Senator the other, would be in the capital in time for the opening of the new Congress in December.

“Mr. Davis is very anxious to have the occasion made a grand one, and I reckon that every one of account in the Confederacy will he here.”  Mrs. Davis said, with conviction.

“The scene will be worthy of a great painting, like the Long Parliament, or the meeting of the Three Estates, at Versailles,” Mrs. Rodney added, in a glow of anticipation.

This amusing pedantry rather taxed the historical knowledge of most of the ladies, and to divert the talk Mrs. Monteith, a Cabinet lady, said: 

“Who has read the account in the Yankee papers of Lincoln and his wife at a reception of the diplomatic corps?  It is too funny.  The Lincoln woman was a Southerner.  She has some good blood, and ought to know better.  She was dressed like a dowdy, and when the ministers bowed she gave them her hand and said, ‘How d’ye do?’”

“It will really be a liberal education, to the North to have a capital like ours near them, where their public men can learn manners, and where Northern ladies can see how to conduct themselves in public,” Mrs. Rodney broke in, laughing.  “It is not often a great people go to war for an idea, but we are taking up the gage of battle to teach our inferiors manners.”

“We taught them how to run at Manassas,” Mrs. Starlow, a Senator’s dame, remarked.

“I’m afraid they have learned the lesson so well that we shall never teach them how to stand,” Mrs. Davis added, gayly.