“We” came down here by rail, as the English say. Such a crowd of Convention men on board. John Manning[21] flew in to beg me to reserve a seat by me for a young lady under his charge. “_Place aux dames_,” said my husband politely, and went off to seek a seat somewhere else. As soon as we were fairly under way, Governor Manning came back and threw himself cheerily down into the vacant place. After arranging his umbrella and overcoat to his satisfaction, he coolly remarked: “I am the young lady.” He is always the handsomest man alive (now that poor William Taber has been killed in a duel), and he can be very agreeable; that is, when he pleases to be so. He does not always please. He seemed to have made his little maneuver principally to warn me of impending danger to my husband’s political career. “Every election now will be a surprise. New cliques are not formed yet. The old ones are principally bent upon displacing one another.” “But the Yankees—those dreadful Yankees!” “Oh, never mind, we are going to take care of home folks first! How will you like to rusticate?—go back and mind your own business?” “If I only knew what that was—what was my own business.”
Our round table consists of the Judge, Langdon Cheves,[22] Trescott,[23] and ourselves. Here are four of the cleverest men that we have, but such very different people, as opposite in every characteristic as the four points of the compass. Langdon Cheves and my husband have feelings and ideas in common. Mr. Petigru[24] said of the brilliant Trescott: “He is a man without indignation.” Trescott and I laugh at everything.
The Judge, from his life as solicitor, and then on the bench, has learned to look for the darkest motives for every action. His judgment on men and things is always so harsh, it shocks and repels even his best friends. To-day he said: “Your conversation reminds me of a flashy second-rate novel.” “How?” “By the quantity of French you sprinkle over it. Do you wish to prevent us from understanding you?” “No,” said Trescott, “we are using French against Africa. We know the black waiters are all ears now, and we want to keep what we have to say dark. We can’t afford to take them into our confidence, you know.”