e than one ardent
lover laid his heart at her feet; but her pleasure was in the many
rather than in the one, and she remained heart-whole while most of her
intimate friends married and went to homes of their own. It is said
that as she grew to womanhood, she was "of delicate physique and a
small but commanding figure, brilliant, accomplished and resolute,
with great personality and of infinite charm." At first no one took
her fearless expression of opinion in regard to the slavery question
seriously, coming as it did from the lips of such a charming young
woman, but as time went on and she became more outspoken and more
diligent in her efforts to uplift and educate the negroes, she began
to be less popular, and to be spoken of as "queer and eccentric" by
those who did not sympathize with her views.

Nevertheless, Richmond's first families still eagerly accepted
invitations to the Van Lew mansion, and it was in its big parlor that
Edgar Allan Poe read his poem, "The Raven," to a picked audience of
Richmond's elect, there Jenny Lind sang at the height of her fame,
and there as a guest came the Swedish novelist, Fredrika Bremer, and
in later years came Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, whose admiration of
Elizabeth Van Lew was unbounded because of her service to the Union.

Betty's father having died soon after she came from school, and her
brother John being of a retiring disposition, Mrs. Van Lew and Betty
did the honors of the stately house on the hill in a manner worthy of
Southern society women, and as years went by and Betty became a woman,
always when they had brilliant guests she listened carefully, saying
little, but was fearlessly frank in her expression of opinion on vital
subjects, when her opinion was asked.

"And now, Sumter had been fired on. Three days after the little
garrison marched out of the smoking fort, Virginia seceded from the
Union, and Richmond went war-mad. In poured troops from other States,
and the beautiful Southern city became a vast military camp. Daily the
daughters of the Confederacy met in groups to sew or knit for the
soldiers, or to shoot at a mark with unaccustomed hands. One day a
note was delivered at the Van Lew mansion, and opened by Mrs. Van Lew,
who read it aloud to her daughter:

"'Come and help us make shirts for our soldiers. We need the immediate
assistance of all our women at this critical time....'"

The silence in the room was unbroken except for the heart-beats of the
two wom