ur room," said the sunny Mrs. L., "my
husband smokes and I am not the least bit afraid that it will harm the
furnishings."

I glanced with a deprecatory gesture at the lace curtains and other rich
furniture of the room, as much as to say, "Could not think of it," and
in fact, before lighting a cigar, I took a seat by the open window where
I sat and puffed the blue smoke into the bluer atmosphere, beguiling the
time the while, talking with these good friends about the war.

That was the very poetry of a soldier's life. For the better part of a
week the two cavalrymen were the guests of that hospitable family who,
at the last, declined to receive any remuneration for their kindness.

The journey to Washington was by rail. In the cars groups of interested
citizens, and soldiers as well, questioned us eagerly for the latest
news from the front, and our tongues were kept busy answering a steady
fire of questions. No incident of the campaign was too trivial to find
willing ears to listen when it was told. The operations of Kilpatrick's
division seemed to be well known and there was much complimentary
comment upon his energy and his dash. The name of Custer, "the boy
general," was seemingly on every tongue and there was no disposition on
our part to conceal the fact that we had been with them.

Arriving at the capital in the middle of the day, we were driven to the
Washington house, at the corner of Pennsylvania avenue and
Four-and-one-half street, where a room was engaged and preparations were
made to remain until the surgeon would say it was safe to start for
home.

[Illustration: CHARLES E. STORRS]

The Washington house was a hotel of the second class but many nice
people stopped there. Among the regular guests was Senator Henry Wilson,
of Massachusetts, afterwards elected vice-president on the ticket with
Grant. He was a very modest man, plain in dress and unassuming in
manner. No one would have suspected from his bearing that he was a
senator and from the great commonwealth of Massachusetts. The colleague
of Charles Sumner, Henry Wilson was at that time one of the ablest, most
widely-known and influential statesmen of his day. Conspicuous among
the anti-slavery leaders of New England, his voice always had been heard
in defense of human rights. His loyalty to the union was equaled only by
his devotion to the interests of the soldiers. He lived a quiet,
unostentatious life, at the hotel, where his well-known face and