A Belle of the Fifties Memoirs of Mrs. Clay of Alabama, covering social and political life in Washington and the South, 1853-1866. Put into narrative form by Ada Sterling

CHAPTER IX. A CELEBRATED SOCIAL EVENT.

Chapter 960 wordsPublic domain

Mrs. Gwin’s Fancy Ball—To the White House for Inspection—Aunt Ruthy Partington Presents Herself to Mrs. Gwin—Mrs. Pendleton is Mystified—Senator Gwin and “My Boy Ike”—Lord and Lady Napier and Others of “Our Furrin Relations”—The Squelching of a Brave Baltimorean—Senator Seward Gives Welcome to the Stranger from Beanville—Mr. Shillaber Offers “to Immortalise” Me 126