y guessed. The cup of confusion is fast filling up; and unless
some knowing hands can make a hole in the bottom and drain off the
dregs, the overflow will be frightful.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote AC: I had had the good fortune to pick up an agreeable
companion on board the "Isabel"--the brother of one of our most
distinguished members of the House of Commons--who, like myself, had
been visiting Cuba, and was hastening to Washington, to be present at
the inauguration of the President Elect, and with him I spent many very
pleasant days.]

CHAPTER XIV.

_Philadelphia and Richmond_.

Having spent a very pleasant time at Baltimore, I took rail for
Philadelphia, the city of "loving brotherhood," being provided with
letters to several most amiable families in that town. I took up my
abode at Parkinson's--a restaurant in Chestnut-street--where I found the
people very civil and the house very clean; but I saw little of the
inside of the house, except at bed and breakfast time. The hospitality
for which this city is proverbial soon made me as much at home as if I
had been a resident there all my life. Dinner-party upon dinner-party
succeeded each other like waves of the ocean; the tables groaned under
precious vintages of Madeira, dating back all but to the Flood. I have
never before or since tasted such delicious wine, and in such profusion,
and everybody stuck to it with such leech-like tenacity. On one
occasion, having sat down to dinner at two o'clock, I found myself
getting up from table half an hour after midnight, and quite as fresh as
when I had sat down. There was no possibility of leaving the hospitable
old General's mahogany.[AD] One kind friend, Mr. C.H. Fisher, insisted
that I must make his house my hotel, either he or his wife were always
at dinner at four o'clock, and my cover was always laid. The society of
his amiable lady and himself made it too tempting an offer to refuse,
and I need scarcely say, it added much to the pleasure of my stay in
Philadelphia. The same kind friend had also a seat for me always in his
box at the opera, where that most charming and lady-like of actresses,
the Countess Rossi,[AE] with her sweet voice, was gushing forth
soft melody to crammed houses. On every side I met nothing but
kindness. Happening one day at dinner to mention incidentally, that I
thought the butter unworthy of the reputation of Philadelphia--for it
professes to stand pre-eminent in dairy produce--two ladi