The turn
of Fortune's wheel had brought each of them from once elegant
Virginia homes to spend the evening of life in the Home which
Mr. Corcoran had so kindly and thoughtfully provided. It was in
very truth the welcome retreat to representatives of old Southern
families who had known better days. Here in quiet and something
of elegant leisure, the years sped by, the chief pastime recalling
events and telling over again and again the social triumphs of the
long ago. Thus lingering in the shadows of the past, sadly
reflecting, it may be, in the silent watches, that--

"The tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me,"

these venerable ladies were in sad reality "only waiting till the
shadows had a little longer grown."

There was something pathetically remindful of the good old Virginia
days in the manner in which Miss Graham handed me her card and
invited me to be seated. Looking me earnestly in the face, she
said, "Mr. Vice-President, you must have known my brother-in-law, Governor
Giles."

"Do you mean Senator William B. Giles of Virginia?" I inquired.

"Yes, yes," she said, "did you know him?"

"No, madam," I replied, "I did not; he was a member of Congress
when Washington was President; that was a little before my day.
But is it possible that you are a sister-in-law of Governor Giles?"

"Yes, sir," she answered, "he married my eldest sister and I was
in hope that you knew him."

I assured her that I had never known him personally, but that I
knew something of his history: that he was a soldier of the
Revolution; that he began his public career with the passing of
the old Confederation and the establishment of the National Union;
that as Representative or Senator he was in Congress almost
continuously from the administration of Washington to that of
Jackson. I then repeated to her the words Mr. Benton, his long-time
associate in the Senate, had spoken of her brother-in-law: "Macon
was wise, Randolph brilliant, Gallatin and Madison able in argument,
but Giles was the ready champion, always ripe for the combat." And
I told her that John Randolph, for many years his colleague, had
said: "Giles was to our House of Representatives what Charles
James Fox was to the British House of Commons--the most accomplished
debater our country has known."

I might have said to Miss Graham, but did not, that her brother-in-law,
then a member of the House, had voted against the farewell add