s
penetrating Scotch mind told him that they had quality. Despite his
hunter's dress, which he had resumed, Willet's manners were those of
the great world, and Dinwiddie often looked at him with
curiosity. Robert seemed to him to be wrapped in the same veil of
mystery, and he judged that the lad, whose manners were not inferior
to those of Willet, had in him the making of a personage. As for
Tayoga, Dinwiddie had been too long in America and he knew too much of
the Hodenosaunee not to appreciate his great position. An insult or a
slight in Virginia to the coming young chief of the Clan of the Bear,
of the nation Onondaga would soon be known in the far land of the Six
Nations, and its cost would be so great that none might count it. Just
as tall oaks from little acorns grow, so a personal affront may sow
the seed of a great war or break a great alliance, and Dinwiddie knew
it.

The governor, assisted by his wife and two daughters, entertained at
his house, and Robert, Tayoga, Willet, and Grosvenor, arrayed in their
best, attended, forming conspicuous figures in a great crowd, as the
Virginia gentry, also clad in their finest, attended. Robert, with
his adaptable and imaginative mind, was at home at once among them. He
liked the soft southern speech, the grace of manner and the good
feeling that obtained. They were even more closely related than the
great families of New York, and it was obvious that they formed a
cultivated society, in close touch with the mother country, intensely
British in manner and mode of thought, and devoted in both theory and
practice to personal independence.

As the spring was now well advanced the night was warm and the windows
and doors of the Governor's Palace were left open. Negroes in livery
played violins and harps while all the guests who wished
danced. Others played cards in smaller rooms, but there was no such
betting as Robert had seen at Bigot's ball in Quebec. There was some
drinking of claret and punch, but no intoxication. The general note
was of great gayety, but with proper restraints.

Robert noticed that the men, spending their lives in the open air and
having abundant and wholesome food, were invariably tall and big of
bone. The women looked strong and their complexions were rosy. The
same facility of mind that had made him like New York and Quebec, such
contrasting places, made him like Williamsburg too, which was
different from either.

Quickly at home, in this societ