FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137  
138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   >>   >|  
made out of these two that the result would be something quite extraordinary in the places of public entertainment. But, by a process which nobody can explain, in the union the art of cooking in hotels got mislaid." "Well," she said, with winning illogicality, "you've got me." "If you could only eat the breakfasts for me, as you can see the Monument for me!" "Dear, I could eat the Monument for you, if it would do you any good." And neither of them was ashamed of this nonsense, for both knew that married people indulge in it when they are happy. Although Henderson came to Washington on business, this was Margaret's wedding journey. There is no other city in the world where a wedding journey can better be combined with such business as is transacted here, for in both is a certain element of mystery. Washington is gracious to a bride, if she is pretty and agreeable--devotion to governing, or to legislation, or to diplomacy, does not render a man insensible to feminine attractions; and if in addition to beauty a woman has the reputation of wealth, she is as nearly irresistible here as anywhere. To Margaret, who was able to return the hospitality she received, and whose equipage was almost as much admired as her toilets, all doors were open--a very natural thing, surely, in a good-natured, give-and-take world. The colonel--Margaret had laughed till she cried when first she heard her husband saluted by this title in Washington by his New Hampshire acquaintances, but he explained to her that he had justly won it years ago by undergoing the hardship of receptions as a member of the Governor's staff--the colonel had brought on his horses and carriages, not at all by way of ostentation, but simply out of regard to what was due her as his wife, and because a carriage at call is a constant necessity in this city, whose dignity is equal to the square of its distances, and because there is something incongruous in sending a bride about in a herdic. Margaret's unworldly simplicity had received a little shock when she first saw her servants in livery, but she was not slow to see the propriety and even necessity of it in a republican society, since elegance cannot be a patchwork, but must be harmonious, and there is no harmony between a stylish turnout--noble horses nobly caparisoned--and a coachman and footman on the box dressed according to their own vulgar taste. Given a certain position, one's sense of fitness and taste mas
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137  
138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Margaret
 

Washington

 

business

 
wedding
 

journey

 

horses

 

Monument

 

necessity

 

colonel

 

received


carriage

 
regard
 

laughed

 
brought
 
justly
 

husband

 

explained

 

saluted

 

Hampshire

 

acquaintances


undergoing

 

carriages

 

ostentation

 

Governor

 

hardship

 
receptions
 

member

 

simply

 

sending

 

turnout


caparisoned

 

coachman

 
stylish
 

patchwork

 

harmonious

 

harmony

 

footman

 

position

 

fitness

 

vulgar


dressed
 
elegance
 

incongruous

 

herdic

 

unworldly

 
distances
 

constant

 
dignity
 
square
 

simplicity