which finished with a supper, and it was understood that the free
expression of opinion should be the rule; consequently several
repressed members of both Houses delivered impromptu speeches, in the
guise of toasts, before that select audience; much to the amusement of
Senator North and the Speaker of the House. Burleigh's was really
impassioned and brilliant; and Armstrong's, if woolly in its phrasing
and Populistic in its length, was sufficiently entertaining.

As for Mrs. Madison, she became imbued with the fear that war would be
declared in her house. Two Cabinet ministers had been added to the
_salon_, and what they in conjunction with the colossal Speaker and
Senators North and Ward might accomplish if they cared to try, was
appalling to contemplate. She begged Betty to adjourn the _salon_ till
peace had come again.

But to this Betty would not hearken. It was the sun of her week,
through whose heavy clouds flickered the pale stars of distractions
for which she was beginning to care little. One of life's
compensations is that there is always something ahead, some trifling
event of interest or pleasure upon which one may fix one's eye and
endeavour to forget the dreary tissue of monotony and commonplace
between. Betty found herself acquiring the habit of casting her eye
over the day as soon as she awoke in the morning, and if nothing
distracting presented itself, she planned for something as well as she
could.

She endeavoured to introduce the pleasant English custom of asking a
few congenial spirits to come for a cup of afternoon tea. These little
informal reunions are among the most delightful episodes of London
life, and if established as a custom in Washington would be like the