he
impression I then received, that I should have felt inconsolable had I
thought it impossible ever to again behold the charms which had
brightened the occasion of our meeting and eclipsed by their brilliancy
the leading belles of the capital. I had hoped, however, to have the
pleasure of meeting you again, and circumstances have fortunately placed
it in my power to do so at an early date. You have doubtless learned
that the contest over the election in the Sixth Congressional District
of South Carolina has been decided in my favor, and that I now have the
honor of representing my native State at the national capital. I have
just been appointed a member of a special committee to visit and inspect
the Sault River and the Straits of Mackinac, with reference to the needs
of lake navigation. I have made arrangements to start a week ahead of
the other members of the committee, whom I am to meet in Detroit on the
20th. I shall leave here on the 2d, and will arrive in Groveland on the
3d, by the 7.30 evening express. I shall remain in Groveland several
days, in the course of which I shall be pleased to call, and renew the
acquaintance so auspiciously begun in Washington, which it is my fondest
hope may ripen into a warmer friendship.

If you do not regard my visit as presumptuous, and do not write me in
the mean while forbidding it, I shall do myself the pleasure of waiting
on you the morning after my arrival in Groveland.

With renewed expressions of my sincere admiration and profound esteem, I
remain,

Sincerely yours,
Hamilton M. Brown, M.C.

To Alice, and especially to her mother, this bold and flowery letter had
very nearly the force of a formal declaration. They read it over again
and again, and spent most of the afternoon discussing it. There were few
young men in Groveland eligible as husbands for so superior a person as
Alice Clayton, and an addition to the number would be very acceptable.
But the mere fact of his being a Congressman was not sufficient to
qualify him; there were other considerations.

"I 've never heard of this Honorable Hamilton M. Brown," said Mr.
Clayton. The letter had been laid before him at the supper-table. "It 's
strange, Alice, that you have n't said anything about him before. You
must have met lots of swell folks not to recollect a Congressman."

"But he was n't a Congressman then," answered Alice; "he was only a
claimant. I remember Senator Bruce, and Mr. Douglass; but there were so