"Why," says I, "don"t people take their characters with them when they go to Washington?"
"They sometimes leave them there," says she, laughing, "but this is what I mean; if I were you I"d take this trip quietly, and look about a little without letting people know how great a genius they had among them. By and by we will all go and take the city by storm."
"Just so," says I, delighted with the plan, which has a touch of diplomacy in it--and I am anxious to study diplomacy under the circ.u.mstances, you know; "creep before you walk--that is what you mean."
"Just pa.s.s as Miss Frost--nothing more--and make your own observations,"
says E. E.
"I will," says I. "It"s a good idea. I don"t think the people in Washington were over polite to my great Grand Duke, and I mean to pay them off, some day."
"That"s settled," says E. E. "Now you have no more than time to get ready."
x.x.xIV.
IN WASHINGTON.
I hurried back to my boarding-house, packed up that pink silk dress and things, put on my alpaca dress, tied a thick brown veil over my beehive, and packed my satchel till it rounded out like an apple dumpling.
We started that night. Cousin D. wanted me to go into a long car where people slept, he said; but I saw a good many men with carpet-bags going in there, which looked strange, and though I have great faith in the integrity of Cousin Dempster, a young lady in my peculiar circ.u.mstances cannot be too particular; I declined to go into that curtained, long car, and sat up in a high-backed chair all night, wide awake as a whip-poor-will, for Cousin Dempster was on the next seat sleeping like a mole, and his head more than once came down so close to my shoulder that it made me shudder for fear that people might not know that he was my cousin"s husband, and snap up my character before I got to Washington.
Well, at last we got out of that train, I stood with both feet in the heart of the nation, and a great, flat, straggling heart it is.
"There it is--there is the Capitol," says Cousin Dempster. "Look how beautifully the sunshine bathes the dome and the white marble walls."
I looked upward--there, rising up over a lot of tall trees and long, green embankments, rose a great building, white as snow, and large as all out-doors. The sun was just up, and had set all its windows on fire, and a great, stout woman perched on the top of a thing they call the dome--which is like a mammoth wash-bowl turned wrong side up--looked as if she was tired out with carrying so much on her head, and longed to jump down and have a good time with the other bronze-colored girls that show themselves off, just like white folks inside the building.
Well, later that day, I went right up to that heap of marble, which in its length and breadth and depth filled my soul with pride and patriotic glory. I really don"t believe there is another building like it on the face of the earth. Freedom, honesty, and greatness _ought_ to preside there.
Why, sisters, there are whole rooms here of clouded marble, ceiling, floor, walls--everything polished like the agate stone in your brooch, and I do think that the hottest sun can hardly force a beam of warmth through.
Down in the great wandering cellars you come upon staircases of beautiful marble, fenced in with railings of iron and gold and bra.s.s all melted together and called bronze, up which deer, as big as young lambs, are jumping, and branches of trees are twisted. There are ever so many of these staircases, and they cost one hundred thousand dollars apiece.
Think of that! and mostly where it is so dark that you can"t but just see them.
"I hadn"t only one day and night to look about in, so I went up there before Congress got to work, as I wanted to see things without having people know that I was there. But by and by a lot of men came swarming in, and I felt like making myself scarce.
I went back to the hotel and got a little sleep.
It was dinner time, and near candle-light when I woke up; and when we got through dinner, Cousin D. told me to hurry up, and we would take a look at the White House.
"Shall I get out my pink silk?" says I. "Does the President expect me?"
"Oh, no," says he; "no one is aware that we are here. We will drive to the White House, see all that is to be seen, and start home bright and early to-morrow morning."
"Then the alpaca will do," says I.
"Of course," says he; "anything."
I wasn"t sorry. This travelling all night is apt to take the ambition out of the most energetic character. The difference between pink silk and alpaca was nothing to me now.
Well, in an hour after, the carriage we rode in stopped under a great square roof, set on marble pillars, which spreads out from the steps of the White House to keep people sheltered from the storm and sun when they get out of the carriages. It was dark now, and two great street-lamps were in brilliant combustion each side of the steps.
Between us, sisters, that White House that we hear so much about is no great shakes of a building. Compared to the Capitol, it is just nowhere.
Cousin D. rang the k.n.o.b, which was silver, and a man opened the door.
"We should like to see the House," says Cousin D.
"Certainly," says the man. "Walk in."
We did walk into a large room, with a few chairs and two or three pictures in it; nothing particular, I can tell you.
"This way," says the man.
We went that way, into a great room, long and wide as a meeting-house, choke full of long windows, and with three awful large gla.s.s balloons, blazing with lights, a-hanging from the roof.
The carpet was thick and soft as a sandy sh.o.r.e, and had its colors all trampled in together, as if some one had stamped down the leaves of a maple camp into the gra.s.s as they fell last year.
"The chairs and sofas and looking-gla.s.ses were bought when General Washington was President," says the man.
"Mercy on me! you don"t say so," says I. "They look rather skimpy for these times, don"t they?" says I; but then his way of buying things and spending money was a little skimpy compared to the way Presidents spend money now; but, of course, we grow more deserving as we grow older.
"Now, those red silk curtains that almost hide the lace ones, did they belong to Washington?"
"Them? Oh, no; we change them every four years."
"Then they go out with the President," says I.
"We don"t think that he will go out yet awhile," says the man, looking a little wrathy.
"Well, I hope he won"t, for great men are scarce in these times," says I, wanting to mollify him. He said nothing, and I followed him through a door into a smaller room, so full of green that it seemed like stepping out of a blazing sun into a fern hollow. The walls were green; the carpet was green as meadow gra.s.s; the sofas and chairs were cushioned with green satin. The gla.s.s balloon seemed to have a sea-green tinge in it, though it was blazing like a bonfire.
Not a soul was in the room, and we went on to the next which was long, rounded off at the ends like a lemon, and blue as the sky. Down the tall windows came curtains of blue silk, sweeping over white lace. The chairs seemed framed in solid gold; their cushions were blue silk.
"This is the celebrated blue room," says the man.
"I"ve heard about it," says I.
"And this," says he, "is the red room. The President has given a dinner-party to General Sickles this evening, and they are now at the table. Would you like to look in?"
Before I could answer, we were standing in the red room, and looking through at a table crowded round with gentlemen and ladies, dressed like queens and princes, some of them looking handsome as angels.
"That is General Sickles," says he, "a-sitting by Mr. Grant."
I looked in, but could only see a face, not over young, turned towards a lady who was listening to him, as if every word he dropped was a ripe cherry. She had a good, honest face, and I liked her.