n. Elsin
Grey, and I had her to wine and later in a Westchester reel. Too much
punch was drunk, iced, which is a deadly thing, and worse still when
the foundation is laid in oranged tea! Too many officers, too many
women, and all so hot, so suffocating, that the red ran from lip and
cheek, streaking the face-powder, and the bare enameled shoulders of
the women were frosted with perspiration like dew on wet roses.

That was the first frolic given in her honor, followed by that wild
dance at the Governor's, where the thickets of clustered candles
drooped like lilies afire, and great islands of ice melted in the
punch-bowls ere they had been emptied a third. And yet the summer
madness continued; by day we drove in couples, in Italian chaises, or
made cherry-parties to Long Island, or sailed the bay to the Narrows,
or played rustic and fished in the bay; at night we danced, danced,
danced, and I saw little of Elsin Grey save through a blaze of
candle-light to move a minuet with her, to press her hand in a reel, or
to conduct her to some garden pavilion where servants waited with ices
amid a thirsty, breathless, jostling throng.

The heat abated nothing; so terrible was it in the city that spite of
the shade afforded by elm, lime, and honey-locust, men and horses were
stricken on the streets, and the Tea Water ran low, and the Collect,
where it flows out into a stream, dried up, and Mr. Rutger's swamps
stank. Also, as was noted by men like me, who, country-bred, concern
themselves with trifles, the wild birds which haunted the trees in
street and lane sang no more, and I saw at times Lord Baltimore's
orioles and hedge-birds, beaks open, eyes partly closed, panting from
the sun, so fierce it beat upon us in New York that summertide.

As for the main Sir Peter had meant to fight with his Flatbush birds,
we tried a shake-bag, stags, which, though fairly matched and handled
by past masters, billed and pecked and panted without a blow from wing
or spur, till we understood that the heat had stunned them, and so gave
up to wait for cooler sport.

We waited, but not in idleness; the cage-fever drove us afield, and the
De Lanceys had us to the house for bowls and cricket, which the ladies
joined, spoiling it somewhat for my taste; and we played golf at Mr.
Lispenard's, which presently lost all charm for me, as Elsin Grey
remained at the pavilion and touched no club, neither wood nor iron,
save to beat the devil's tattoo upon the