but simply out of regard to what was
due her as his wife, and because a carriage at call is a constant
necessity in this city, whose dignity is equal to the square of its
distances, and because there is something incongruous in sending a bride
about in a herdic. Margaret's unworldly simplicity had received a little
shock when she first saw her servants in livery, but she was not slow to
see the propriety and even necessity of it in a republican society, since
elegance cannot be a patchwork, but must be harmonious, and there is no
harmony between a stylish turnout--noble horses nobly caparisoned--and a
coachman and footman on the box dressed according to their own vulgar
taste. Given a certain position, one's sense of fitness and taste mast be
maintained. And there is so much kindliness and consideration in human
nature--Margaret's gorgeous coachman and footman never by a look revealed
their knowledge that she was new to the situation, and I dare say that
their respectful demeanor contributed to raise her in her own esteem as
one of the select and favored in this prosperous world. The most
self-poised and genuine are not insensible to the tribute of this
personal consideration. My lady giving orders to her respectful
servitors, and driving down the avenue in her luxurious turnout, is not
at all the same person in feeling that she would be if dragged about in a
dissolute-looking hack whose driver has the air of the stable. We take
kindly to this transformation, and perhaps it is only the vulgar in soul
who become snobbish in it. Little by little, under this genial
consideration, Margaret advanced in the pleasant path of worldliness; and
we heard, by the newspapers and otherwise--indeed, Mr. and Mrs. Morgan
were there for a couple of weeks in the winter--that she was never more
sweet and gracious and lovely than in this first season at the capital. I
don't know that the town was raving, as they said, about her beauty and
wit--there is nothing like the wit of a handsome woman--and amiability
and unostentatious little charities, but she was a great favorite. We
used to talk about it by the fire in Brandon, where everything reminded
us of the girl we loved, and rejoice in her good-fortune and happiness,
and get rather heavy-hearted in thinking that she had gone away from us
into such splendor.

"I wish you were here," she wrote to my wife. "I am sure you would enjoy
it. There are so many distinguished people and brilliant peo