"Lor', honey, I never specs to see de greates' ladie in de lan'."
"Well, stand up," was my agitated reply, "and explain what you mean."
"Bless de chile! I love to think I'm some 'count."
"Hurry!" was my impatient exclamation, "I can't wait." And all my young friends were grouped close around, zealously listening for what the old creature was about to say.
"I mean you'll make de grandes' marriage 'bout here."
"Whom will I marry?" were my now eager though venturesome words.
"Why, de young mars' who sent you de valentine."
I was so provoked with myself that I could have bitten my tongue off, though, after all, it was a most natural answer to give on St. Valentine's night; and thus having decided my future, Aunt Charlotte hurriedly turned to another, and yet another, as both girls and boys pressed forward for their turn. When she reached George Washington I listened closely. She told him he would ride in a coach and six, and that "we've nuver seen sich wondrous time as 'Mars George'll hav'."
When the fortune-telling was concluded, I learned that it was already considerably beyond the time to start home, and therefore speedily made my adieux; a few moments later found me in our high-stepped carriage rapidly rolling out of the Oakland grounds.
"And thus ended the episode which I promised to tell you," said Martha Washington, the wife of the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental army and President of the United States, to the French officer De Grasse at the Peace Ball given in Fredericksburg.