For the Chief Justice to lose or forget articles of clothing was nothing unusual. "He lost a coat, when he dined at the Secretary of the Navy's," writes Story who had been making a search for Marshall's missing garment. (Story to Webster, March 18, 1828, Story MSS. Mass. Hist. Soc.)
[239] Story, ii, 504-05.
[240] Story to Williams, Feb. 16, 1812, ib. i, 214.
[241] Story to Fay, Feb. 24, 1812, ib. 215.
[242] Ib.
[243] Story to his wife, March 5, 1812, Story, i, 217.
[244] Same to same, March 12, 1812, ib. 219.
[245] Magazine of American History, xii, 69; and see Quincy: Figures of the Past, 189-90. This tale, gathering picturesqueness as it was passed by word of mouth during many years, had its variations.
[246] Marshall to Tazewell, Jan. 20, 1827, MS.
[247] Wirt to Delaplaine, Nov. 5, 1818, Kennedy: Memoirs of the Life of William Wirt, ii, 85.