The cheer was very good,--cold
fowl and meats; cold pies of foreign manufacture very rich, and of
mysterious composition; and champagne in plenty, with other wines for
those who liked them.
I sat between two ladies, one of them Mrs. ------, a pleasant young
woman, who, I believe, is of American provincial nativity, and whom I
therefore regarded as half a countrywoman. We talked a good deal
together, and I confided to her my annoyance at the prospect of being
called up to answer a toast; but she did not pity me at all, though she
felt, much alarm about her husband, Captain ------, who was in the same
predicament. Seriously, it is the most awful part of my official duty,--
this necessity of making dinner-speeches at the Mayor's, and other public
or semi-public tables. However, my neighborhood to Mrs. ------ was good
for me, inasmuch as by laughing over the matter with her came to regard
it in a light and ludicrous way; and so, when the time actually came, I
stood up with a careless dare-devil feeling. The chairman toasted the
president immediately after the Queen, and did me the honor to speak of
myself in a most flattering manner, something like this: "Great by his
position under the Republic,--greater still, I am bold to say, in the
Republic of letters!" I made no reply at all to this; in truth, I forgot
all about it when I began to speak, and merely thanked the company in
behalf of the President, and my countrymen, and made a few remarks with
no very decided point to them.
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