y--at dinner.
Senor Yrujo also--and their ladies, of course. Mr. Burr and Mr. Merry
seem already acquainted. I met them riding this morning."

"Hand and glove, then, so soon? What do you make of it? I have a guess
that those three--Burr, Merry, Yrujo--mean this administration no
special good. And yet it was I myself who kept our Spanish friend from
getting his passports back to Madrid. I did that only because of his
marriage to the daughter of my friend, Governor McKean, of
Pennsylvania. But what were you saying now?"

"I thought perhaps I should go to my rooms to change for dinner. You
see that I am still in riding-clothes."

"And what of that, my son? I am in something worse!"

The young man stood and looked at his chief for a moment. He realized
the scarce dignified figure that the President presented in his long
coat, his soiled waistcoat, his stained trousers, and his woolen
stockings--not to mention the unspeakable slippers, down at the heel,
into which he had thrust his feet that morning when he came into the
office.

"You think I will not do?" Mr. Jefferson smiled at him frankly. "I am
not so free from wisdom, perhaps, after all. Let this British minister
see us as we are, for men and women, and not dummies for finery.
Moreover, I remember well enough how we cooled our heels there in
London, Mr. Madison and myself. They showed us little courtesy enough.
Well, they shall have no complaint here. We will treat them as well as
we do the others, as well as the electors who sent us here!"

Meriwether Lewis allowed himself a smile.

"Go," added his chief. "Garb yourself as I would have you--in your
best. But there will be no precedence at table this evening--remember
that! Let them take seats pell-mell--the devil take the hindmost--a
fair field for every one, and favor to none! Seat them as nearly as
possible as they should not be seated--and leave the rest to me. All
these--indeed, all history and all the records--shall take me
precisely as I am!"

An hour later Meriwether Lewis stood before his narrow mirror, well
and handsomely clad, as was seeming with one of his family and his
place--a tall and superb figure of young manhood, as proper a man as
ever stood in buckled shoes in any country of the world.

The guests came presently, folk of many sorts. With Mr. Jefferson as
President, the democracy of America had invaded Washington, taking
more and more liberties, and it had many representatives on hand. Wit