y then, of the famous
men and women who promenaded under those chandeliers, and sat down to
the game-laden table. In 1835 General Atkinson and his officers thought
nothing of the twenty miles from Jefferson Barracks below, nor of
dancing all night with the Louisville belles, who were Mrs. Brinsmade's
guests. Thither came Miss Todd of Kentucky, long before she thought
of taking for a husband that rude man of the people, Abraham Lincoln.
Foreigners of distinction fell in love with the place, with its
open-hearted master and mistress, and wrote of it in their journals.
Would that many of our countrymen, who think of the West as rough, might
have known the quality of the Brinsmades and their neighbors!

An era of charity, of golden simplicity, was passing on that October
night of Anne Brinsmade's ball. Those who made merry there were soon
to be driven and scattered before the winds of war; to die at Wilson's
Creek, or Shiloh, or to be spared for heroes of the Wilderness. Some
were to eke out a life of widowhood in poverty. All were to live
soberly, chastened by what they had seen. A fear knocked at Colonel
Carvel's heart as he stood watching the bright figures.

"Brinsmade," he said, "do you remember this room in May, '46?"

Mr. Brinsmade, startled, turned upon him quickly.

"Why, Colonel, you have read my very thoughts," he said. "Some of those
who were here then are--are still in Mexico."

"And some who came home, Brinsmade, blamed God because they had not
fallen," said the Colonel.

"Hush, Comyn, His will be done," he answered; "He has left a daughter to
comfort you."

Unconsciously their eyes sought Virginia. In her gown of faded primrose
and blue with its quaint stays and short sleeves, she seemed to have
caught the very air of the decorous century to which it belonged. She
was standing against one of the pilasters at the side of the
room, laughing demurely at the antics of Becky Sharp and Sir John
Falstaff,--Miss Puss Russell and Mr. Jack Brinsmade, respectively.

Mr. Tennyson's "Idylls" having appeared but the year before, Anne was
dressed as Elaine, a part which suited her very well. It was strange
indeed to see her waltzing with Daniel Boone (Mr. Clarence Colfax)
in his Indian buckskins. Eugenie went as Marie Antoinette. Tall Maude
Catherwood was most imposing as Rebecca; and her brother George made a
towering Friar Tuck, Even little fifteen-year-old Spencer Catherwood,
the contradiction of the family, was