“I have described your Aunt Mary as beautiful, and perhaps you would infer that she was also over-fond of dress.  She was no devotee to fashion, and her toilet was, even at that period, characterized by great simplicity, but was noted, at the same time, for picturesqueness.”

Ida showed me, the other day, a very interesting letter written to her father by a friend, Mr. Yancey, who was present at his marriage, and as it confirms what mamma has said of Aunt Mary’s beauty, I will make some extracts from it.  Mr. Yancey was the son-in-law of Squire Bragg, at whose house Aunt Mary resided while teaching school in North Carolina.

“GERMANTOWN, TENNESSEE, July 6, 1847.

“MR. GREELEY: 

“DEAR SIR:—­Sitting to-night ‘all solitary and alone,’ my mind has wandered back upon scenes that have past eleven years ago, though vivid now even as yesterday.  It was about that time that I saw you first, and indeed saw you last.

“Little did I then dream that I beheld in that modest personage one who is now acknowledged as the ’distinguished and accomplished Horace Greeley.’

“You well remember your first visit to the South, I dare say.  You cannot have forgotten many incidents that occurred at a little village of North Carolina, called Warrenton?  No, there is one circumstance I feel assured you never can forget while memory lasts, and there are others to which I claim the right to call your attention:  for instance, do you remember your first meeting with a certain Miss Cheney at the house of Squire Bragg, the father of Capt.  Bragg, who lately distinguished himself at Monterey and Buena Vista?  Do you now remember to whom you related the secret of your visit, who procured the parson, and what persons accompanied you to church, and then with your beautiful bride returned to breakfast?  We saw you take the solemn vows, we witnessed the plighted betrothal, and when you bore away from us this prize, you also carried our best wishes that you might be ever blessed, and she be made always happy.  May it not have been otherwise.”

. . . .  “I would, my dear sir, be pleased to hear from you, and to learn something of the results and changes which time has brought about in your own family.

“Be pleased to remember me to your sweet wife, and if there be any, or
many little G------s, my kind regards to them also.

“Very respectfully,

“A.  L. YANCEY.”

CHAPTER VI.

Visitors—­Our Neighbors—­The Chappaqua Croquet Club—­Gabrielle’s Letter—­A Hiding Party—­Summer Heat—­The Music-room—­Friends from the City.

June 18.

While out on the croquet ground this afternoon, a lady and gentleman alighted from a carriage, and walked up to join us.  They proved to be our friends, Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Wilbour, of New York, who had driven over from White Plains to make us an afternoon call.  Mrs. Wilbour is a charming, intellectual woman, the president of Sorosis, and a friend of many years of both mamma and Aunt Mary.  In appearance she is tall, handsome, and queenly, dressing in perfect taste, and a graceful hostess.  Her pretty daughter Linny is a school friend of Gabrielle’s at St. Mary’s.