the circle.  We formed a long procession to the dining-room, and I shall never forget how awkward I felt on finding myself walking, with the General’s arm in mine, at the head of it.  There was a certain air of high breeding, of respect for others founded on self-respect, and a perfect familiarity with all the forms of society, which relieved me from much of my embarrassment by making me feel instinctively that nobody would take unpleasant notice of it.  Still, that first dinner was a trial to my nerves, though I do not remember that the trial interfered with my appetite.  It was served, of course, in courses, beginning with soup and ending with fruit.  Most of the dishes, as I afterwards learned, were the produce of the farm, and they certainly bore good witness to the farmer’s judgment and skill.  The General was a hearty eater, as most Frenchmen are; but he loved to season his food with conversation, and, much as he relished his meals, he seemed to relish the pleasant talk between the courses still more.  As I was unable to follow the conversation of the table, I came in for a large share of the General’s attention, who would turn to me every now and then with something pleasant to say.  He had had the consideration, too, to place one of the young ladies next to me, directly on my right, as I was on his; and her English, though not perfectly fluent, was fluent enough to enable us to keep up a lively interlude.

On returning to the drawing-room, the General led me up to a portrait of my grandfather, and indulged himself for a while in endeavoring to trace a resemblance between us.  I say indulged; for he often, down to the last time that I ever saw him, came back to this subject, and seemed to take a peculiar pleasure in it.  He had been warmly attached to General Greene, and the attachment which both of them bore to Washington served to strengthen their attachment to each other.  This portrait, a copy from Peale, had been one of the fruits of his last visit to the United States, and hung, with those of some other personal friends,—­great men all of them,—­on the drawing-room wall.  His Washington was a bronze from Houdon’s bust, and stood opposite the mantel-piece on a marble pedestal.  Conversation and music filled up the rest of the evening, and before I withdrew for the night it had been arranged that I should begin my French the next morning, with one of the young ladies for teacher.  And thus ended my first day at La Grange.

EVERY-DAY LIFE AT LA GRANGE.

The daily life at La Grange was necessarily systematic.  The General’s position compelled him to see a great deal of company and exposed him to constant interruptions.  He kept a kind of open table, at which part of the faces seemed to be changing every day.  Then there were his own children, with claims upon his attention which he was not disposed to deny, and a large family of grandchildren to educate, upon all of whose minds he wished to leave personal impressions of their intercourse with him which should make them feel how much he loved and cherished them all.  Fortunately, the size of the castle made it easy to keep the family rooms distant from the rooms of the guests; and a judicious division of time enabled him to preserve a degree of freedom in the midst of constraint, which, though the rule in Europe, American hosts in town or country have very little conception of.