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s from the right source, and in a time astonishingly short you find yourself at home. This has been time out of mind Virginian custom; and as Richmond is but a condensation of all that is Virginian, it prevailed here as well. If the stranger did not give himself up to the whirl and yield himself, "rescue or no rescue," to the lance of the unmarried, he could find, behind the _chevaux de frise_ of clashing knitting-needles, the most genial welcome and most whole-souled hospitality. "Stupid party last night--too full," criticised Wyatt, as he lounged in my room one morning. "You seemed bored, old man, though I saw you with Nell H. Desperate flirt--pretty, too! But take my advice; let her alone. It don't pay to flirt."--The ten years between the captain and myself were to _my_ credit on Time's ledger--"It's all very well to stick up your pennon and ride gaily into the lists to break a lance with all comers. Society cries _laissez aller!_ and her old dowagers shower _largesse_. Presto! my boy, and you find your back on the grass and your heels in the air. But I've some steady-going cousins I want to introduce you to. Suit you exactly." Confound the boy! Where did he get that idea? But I was introduced to the "steady-going cousins" and to me now the Richmond of memory begins and ends in their circle. The jovial, pleasant family dinner around the old-time board; the consciousness of ready welcome to the social fireside, or partake of the muffin at eight, or the punch--brewed very near Father Tom's receipt--at midnight. Then the never-to-be-forgotten coterie of the brightest women of the day under the shaded droplight, in the long winter evenings! And none were excluded by the "steady goers" because they had committed matrimony. They did quantities of work that season; baskets of socks, bales of shirts and boxes of gloves, in numbers marvelous to see, went from that quiet circle to warm the frozen hands and feet, keeping watch and ward for them. And the simple words of cheer and love that went with them must have warmed hearts far colder than beat under the rough shirts they sent. And never did the genial current of talk--sometimes chatty, sometimes brilliant--flag for a moment. The foremost men of government and army were admitted, and I doubt if ever the most ardent of the unmarried--wilting in the lancers, or deliquescing in the _deux temps_--found very much more genuine enjoyment than the "easy goers," over their dis
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