While quietly taking my soup, I saw an apparition! In walked a stately, handsome woman, by her side an old-fashioned, courtly gentleman, in a black velvet sack coat, ruffled shirt, and ruffled wristbands, accompanied by a small boy, evidently their son. “There he is,” I said to myself. Now, I make it a rule never to disturb any one until they have taken off the edge of their appetite. I stealthily viewed the man on whom my hopes hinged. Remarkable to look at he was. A thoroughly well-dressed man, with the unmistakable air of a gentleman and a man of culture. As he spoke he gesticulated, and even with his family, he seemingly kept up the liveliest of conversations. No sooner had he reached his coffee, than I reached him. In five minutes I was as much at home with him as if I had known him for five years.
“Well, my dear sir,” he said, “what made you go first to Frelinghuysen? Why did you not come at once to me? I know all about you; my friends are your friends. I know what you want. The office you wish, I will see that you get. Our good President will sanction what I do. The office is yours. Say no more about it.” From that hour this glorious old man and myself were sworn friends; I was here simply carrying out the axiom to keep one’s friendships in repair; and, as he had done so much for me, I resolved, in turn, to do all I could for him, and I know I made the evening of his life, at least, one of pleasurable and quiet enjoyment. He came to me that summer at Newport, and the life he there led among fashionable people seemed to be a new awakening to him of cultivated and refined enjoyment. He found himself among people there who appreciated his well-stored mind and his great learning. He was the brightest and best conversationalist I have ever met with. His memory was marvelous; every little incident of everyday life would bring forth some poetical illustrations from his mental storehouse.
At a large dinner I gave him, to which I had invited General Hancock and one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, the question of precedence presented itself. I sent in the Judge before the General, and being criticised for this, I appealed to the General himself. “In Washington,” he said, “I have been sent in to dinner on many occasions before our Supreme Court Judges, and again on other occasions they have preceded me. There is no fixed rule; but I am inclined to think I have precedence.”
During this summer, a young friend of mine was so charmed with the Attorney-General, that he advised with me about giving him an exceptionally handsome entertainment. This idea took shape the following winter, when he came and asked me to assist him in getting up for him a superb banquet at Delmonico’s. He wanted the brilliant people of society to be invited to it, and no pains or expense to be spared to make it the affair of the winter. I felt that our distinguished citizen, the ex-Secretary of State and ex-Governor, who had so long held political as well as social power, and his wife, should be asked to preside over it, and thus expressed myself to him, and was requested to ask them to do so. I presented myself to this most affable and courtly lady in her sunshiny drawing-room on Second Avenue, and proffered my request. She graciously accepted the invitation, saying she well knew the gentleman and his family as old New Yorkers; and to preside over a dinner given to her old friend, Mr. Brewster, would really give her the greatest pleasure.
Great care was taken in the selection of the guests. New York sent to this feast the brilliant men and women of that day, and the feast was worthy of them. The “I” table (shape of letter I) was literally a garden of superb roses; a border of heartsease, the width of one’s hand, encircled it, and was most artistic. Delmonico’s ball-room, where we dined, had never been so elaborately decorated. The mural decorations were superb; placques of lilies of the valley, of tulips, and of azaleas adorned the walls; and the dinner itself was pronounced the best effort of Delmonico’s chefs. What added much to the general effect was on leaving the table for a short half-hour to find the same dining-room, in that short space of time, converted into a brilliant ball-room, all full of the guests of the Patriarchs, and a ball under full headway.