vernment prematurely
informed of the dissatisfaction felt with its representative in America.

It was well on toward three in the afternoon before all the business was
disposed of and Calvert had leisure to recall his engagement. When Mr.
Jefferson heard of it he declared his intention of going, too, for it
was ever one of his greatest pleasures to watch young people at their
amusements. The carriage was ordered, and, after stopping in the rue de
Richelieu for Mr. Morris, Mr. Jefferson ordered the coachman to drive to
the terrace of the Jardin des Tuileries, near the Pont Royal, which
particular place the fashionable world had chosen for a rendezvous from
which to watch the skating upon the Seine.

It was a beautiful and unusual sight that met Calvert's eyes for the
first time on that brilliant winter's afternoon as he alighted from Mr.
Jefferson's carriage. The river, which was solidly frozen over at this
point, and which was kept smooth and free of soft ice by attendants from
the Palais Royal, was thronged. Officers of the splendid Maison du Roi
and the Royale Cravate, in magnificent uniforms, glided about; nobles
in their rich dress, the sunlight catching their small swords and
burnishing them to glittering brightness, skated hither and thither; now
and then in the crowd was seen some beautiful woman on skates or more
frequently wrapped in furs and being pushed luxuriously about in a
chair-sleigh by lackeys and attended by a retinue of admirers. On the
terrace of the garden overlooking the river a throng of the most notable
people of the court and society, drawn hither by the novelty of the
pastime and comfortably installed in chairs brought by their servants,
with chaufferettes and furs to keep them protected from the intense
cold, looked on at the shifting, swiftly moving pageant before them. For
the time being the Parisian world was mad about skating, both because of
its popularity as an English sport and because of the rarity with which
it could be enjoyed in France.

Joining the throng of spectators, Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Morris quickly
found themselves surrounded by friends and acquaintances, and Calvert
left them talking with Madame d'Azay, Madame de Flahaut, and the
Marechal de Segur, while he put on his skates. The young man was no
great proficient in the art of skating as he was in that of swimming and
riding (indeed, he was a most perfect equestrian, seeming to have some
secret understanding and entente