“Bravo, bravo, M. Luzerne. That Arnold has given our committee much concern and trouble. He is a brilliant leader, but he has no sense of propriety or diplomacy,” asserted General Schuyler, who left the minister as he seemed to be holding a small reception of his own,—so many people pressed around him to say a word about the arrival of the French troops and fleet.
The music and dancing were going on in the large rooms across the great hallway from the reception room. Mollie was there holding court, entertaining a group of the younger men with her brilliant repartee.
Family representatives of the members of Congress from the South were there;—each family coming in an equipage of its own.
The minuet was danced in its stateliest fashion; Miss Greydon and Roderick Barclugh, Sally Chew and Mr. Carroll, Miss Hancock and Mr. Custis, Miss Schuyler and Richard Henry Lee, formed the set. As the music swelled in rhythmic measure, the richly gowned mademoiselles and the bachelors, scions of the most distinguished families, tiptoed and curtsied through the sinuous changes of the dance, to the entire approbation of the critical assemblage.
Mollie was showered with attentions and compliments, some even going as far as to hint slyly at the attentions of Roderick Barclugh. Mr. Livingston of New York saw the minuet and noticed Roderick Barclugh dancing with the daughter of the host. He turned to Charles Thomson, the Secretary of Congress, and asked:
“Mr. Thomson, who is this gentleman, Mr. Barclugh? I have heard his name, but I never saw him before. Where does he come from to us?”
Mr. Thomson, who was always very reserved, replied quietly:
“He was introduced to us by a letter from Benjamin Franklin, who in turn was asked to give him the letter by the French Monarch.”
Mr. Livingston then remarked:
“Well, the French Secretary must then know his antecedents. Ah, here is M. Marbois. We’ll ask him.”