CHAPTER XXII.

NOTED WOMEN OF WASHINGTON—A CHAPTER OF GOSSIP.

A Traveling Lady—Life in Russia—A Modern American Minister—A long and Lonely Journey—The Court of St James—Peculiar Waists—Costume of an Ancient _Belle_—Fearful and Wonderful Attire of a _Beau_—“A suit of Steel”—An Ascendant Star—A Man Who Hid his Feelings—The Candidate at a Cattle Show—Charles’s Opinion of His Mother—How a Lady “Amused” Her Declining Days—A Woman’s Influence—Politics and Piety Disagree—Why the General Didn’t Join the Church—A Head “Full of Politics”—Swearing Some—The President Becomes a Good Boy—Domestic Tendencies, 204