she carried her head one side higher than the other, as you always do when sitting still. I forgot to look for her when the services closed, so that I do not know whether it was a fancy evoked by distance, or not.

The seat that Washington used to occupy was pointed out to me, and the ghost of the old warrior seemed to fill the room with its great presence, as I pictured him moving down the aisle in the costume of century ago, with fat old Martha, his wife, and a dozen relatives and dependents, besides those who waited with the chariot outside.

I do not know when I have enjoyed a day so much. The service really seemed good and pleasant, and I would like to join a church if it were always so satisfactory as to-day. Blackford is very quiet and unobtrusive, but at the same time affords that feeling of society which is always a relief in a strange crowd. I do not like to be wholly alone, and yet I do not like to be disturbed. I never like to travel now without an attendant of some kind, knowing the dangers which beset public men. While waiting for the boat which runs every hour, we ate an oysterstew, and reached the Washington dock at three.

I wonder what makes me love you so much. Why is it that out of all the millions of women in the world I turn irresistibly to you? How

have you established such a tyranny over me? Why am I such a slave? Others smile upon me, but I heed them not. My sighs constantly ascend for you. When I look at the window whence I used to see you watching for my coming, my heart swells with grief and your name bursts from my lips as if I were a child. There is a feeling of dependence upon you, as if you could protect and defend me from all the evil in the world, and as if you could save me from the dangers of the great hereafter. Your love is so strong, so pure, so faithful, that it gives me a sense of infinite tranquillity and infinite peace and rest.

I think much of the children, but they seem to be only incidents of our love, not a part of me. They separate us for awhile they educate and develop parts of our nature that would sleep otherwise and then like sweet Ruth they take wings and fly away, or they grow up and have children of their own, and forget us, and we know them no more save as memories. So you and I have become less and less to our parents, and as our children leave us, we shall become more and more I hope to each other, till our union shall be complete and eternal. I can imagine no destiny so delightful as unobstructed companionship with your noble nature, with the love of your tender and passionate soul.

So it was always. He ever turned to his wife. His home was the

"Golden milestone:

Was the central point from which he measured every distance

Through the gateways of the world around him".

V.

Mrs. Ingalls heard, by letter when not in Washington, of the doings and habits of his colleagues in the Senate, as witness:

The Colorado millionaire, Tabor, took his seat last week. A fouler beast was never depicted. He is of the Harvey type, but indescribably lower and coarser. Such a vulgar ruffianly boor you. never beheld: uncouth, awkward, shambling, dirty hands and big feet turned inward: a huge solitaire diamond on a sooty, bony blacksmith finger: piratical features, unkempt, frowsy and unclean: blotched with disease - he looks the brute he is. He was stared at with curious but undisguised abhorrence.

DC is going to the bad at a handgallop. He has been drunk for the last ten days, and is now threatened with delirium tremens. His poor wife is in despair. It seems as if the devil had broken loose lately. V has taken to drink again after a year's abstinence and has

been kept in durance by his friends. Beck, Voorhees, Morgan and half a dozen more are either inflamed or besotted with whiskey half the time. I am not sure that prohibition is not salutary. It is singular that I am not led into this temptation myself. My grandfather Ingalls fell a victim to the appetite in his later days, and I have often wondered how I escaped. Sometimes I feel an unappeasable craving for champagne or ale, but a glass satisfies me.

Whether despondent or in ecstacy, he turned always and ever to his wife:

This is an enchanting morning. The air is dazzling, and filled with the floating down of some tree or flower, which is thicker than snowflakes. It moves through the silver flood of sunshine with an indescribably lazy, graceful, undulating, hither-and-thither motion, which fills the soul with languor and stirs an impulse to wander without end or aim.

I just telegraphed you that I could not leave till the last of the week. I enclose you two telegrams rec'd yesterday to show you how I am beset. I hoped to be able to leave to-night, but it will not be feasible.- Last night, as I wrote you, Gov. H. and I went to see "Ronsby". She is too tall for my idea of beauty, and too slender, and her nose is too narrow, and she shows her

white teeth too artificially, but she is unquestionably very lovely, and with that statement the whole has been told. She is not an actress, but has good clothes. One green velvet dress with gold bands down the front was very effective.

I rose this morning at seven-thirty, lay ten minutes in a warm bath, ate half a shad for breakfast, and shall proceed in a few moments to the Departments.

My best wishes and my tenderest love go toward you through the splendor of this summer morning which shines upon the world like your affection upon the life of your

VI.

Faithful Husband.

Called once to Washington and detained beyond the time he intended to remain, though but a few days, he became petulant and impatient, ending a letter to Mrs. Ingalls as follows:

I hope soon to hear from you here. It is but little more than a week since I left home, but it seems a month. I miss you more and more. It is such a consolation to know that you are near me, in the room, in the house, by my side in sleep, and always loving me, always ready to help in time of need. I kiss you good night.