She drew her shawl around her and shivered. Her nose wrinkled. 'What a malodorous bam! I should think it hardly worth while being President if one must live here'. 'Ah,' said Aaron softly, placing his hat on a frayed red damask chair for want of any other place. 'If I were President, this would not be a malodorous bam. Nor, I assure you, would I make a cult of rudeness and boorishness in an endeavor to impress people with my democracy.'

'It is indeed very rude to leave us standing here like this,' cried Theo with sudden indignation, as it occurred to her that this cavalier treatment might be an intended slight directed at her father.

Aaron shrugged, taking a delicate pinch of snuff from his snuffbox. 'You look charming, my dear,' he observed with satisfaction. 'Eleanore did wonders to that gown. The green touches become you mightily.'

Eleanore's clever fingers had refurbished a last year's ball dress with scraps of green silk from an old negligee. The white tunic was edged with it, and emerald bows chased each other like butterflies down the front. She had wound a strip of the green silk in amongst Theo's hair, which was closely twisted about her head à l'orientale. On her bosom sparkled the diamond necklace. She had not worn it since Venus's desecration, and before donning it tonight she had scrubbed it viciously with soapy water. From this it emerged all the brighter.

And still they waited, and Theodosia's nervousness grew. Where was Merne? She longed and yet dreaded to see him.

Shouts and rumbles and stampings outside announced the arrival of other guests. The door opened and Dolly Madison swept in, laughing. Her spare little husband followed in her wake like a sparrow pursuing a bird of paradise. On her dark hair she wore a yellow satin turban, with ostrich feathers, and a topaz brooch. Her pleasantly buxom figure was encased in white satin trimmed with swansdown and she exuded a strong odor of musk. Her kind blue eyes widened as she discovered the Burrs.

'Why, Colonel!' she cried, rushing forward. 'And Theodosia, how do you do, my child! How pretty you look! Whatever arc you two doing out here, and with your wraps on?'

Aaron kissed the bejeweled hand that was held out to him. 'We haven't been invited to go anywhere else, as yet, ma'am,' he said dryly.

'La!' She favored them all with her charming smile, not excepting her husband. 'Isn't Jefferson wicked! He has no manners at all, I vow. But'tis my fault. As official hostess, I should have been here sooner. Jemmy—you know Mrs. Alston?'

Madison bowed stiffly and gave her a tight smile as Theo dropped a curtsy. His wizened face seldom changed expression except when he looked at his wife, when it assumed an expression of tender admiration which illumined it.