s entirely
alone and without even the comforting sound of a human voice. Our life
preservers were within reach, but I fully realized that they would be of
but little avail in such a raging sea. During those anxious moments,
with my little children sound asleep in the adjoining cabin and quite
oblivious of impending danger, I wondered whether it would be my destiny
to close my earthly career on Rockaway Beach, near the spot where I had
first seen the light of day; but soon after those anxious moments I was
indeed grateful, as the captain told me that if the wind had been in
another quarter all of us would have perished within a few hours.
Gradually the winds and storm ceased and, the waters becoming calmer, we
finally reached our haven without even being subjected to the annoying
presence of a Custom House official, as the high seas had prevented his
visit. When I reached land I learned that the awful storm had extended
along the whole eastern coast and had carried death and devastation in
its track. The children and I were driven to my mother's late residence,
57 West Thirty-sixth Street, but she was no longer there to greet me, as
she had passed into the Great Beyond the year before my return; but my
sister Charlotte and my brother Malcolm were still living there, both of
whom were unmarried. I had received such kindness from the captain of
the _Mirage_ during the homeward voyage that I felt I should like to
make some fitting return, and accordingly his wife and daughter became
my guests.

CHAPTER XIII

THE CIVIL WAR AND LIFE IN MARYLAND

As the time passed I became somewhat anxious over the delay in Mr.
Gouverneur's return to this country. It seems, however, that, with
neither of us knowing it, we were upon the sea at the same time. His
homeward voyage was made by the way of the Isthmus of Suez and
Marseilles. For a while it seemed difficult for either of us to realize
that we were in our own country once more, as the Civil War had turned
everything and everybody topsy turvy. When we left the country, party
animosities were pitched to a high key, but the possibility of a
gigantic civil war as a solution of political problems would have been
regarded as preposterous. On our return, however, the country was wild
with excitement over an armed struggle, the eventual magnitude of which
no one had yet dreamed of. Newly equipped regiments were constantly
passing in our vicinity for the seat of war, the national en