many doctors and lawyers and politicians that I could n't keep track of
them all. Still I have a faint impression of a Mr. Brown who danced with
me."

She went into the parlor and brought out the dancing programme she had
used at the Washington ball. She had decorated it with a bow of blue
ribbon and preserved it as a souvenir of her visit.

"Yes," she said, after examining it, "I must have danced with him. Here
are the initials--'H.M.B.'"

"What color is he?" asked Mr. Clayton, as he plied his knife and fork.

"I have a notion that he was rather dark--darker than any one I had ever
danced with before."

"Why did you dance with him?" asked her father. "You were n't obliged to
go back on your principles because you were away from home."

"Well, father, 'when you 're in Rome'--you know the rest. Mrs.
Clearweather introduced me to several dark men, to him among others.
They were her friends, and common decency required me to be courteous."

"If this man is black, we don't want to encourage him. If he 's the
right sort, we 'll invite him to the house."

"And make him feel at home," added Mrs. Clayton, on hospitable thoughts
intent.

"We must ask Sadler about him to-morrow," said Mr. Clayton, when he had
drunk his coffee and lighted his cigar. "If he 's the right man he shall
have cause to remember his visit to Groveland. We 'll show him that
Washington is not the only town on earth."

The uncertainty of the family with regard to Mr. Brown was soon removed.
Mr. Solomon Sadler, who was supposed to know everything worth knowing
concerning the colored race, and everybody of importance connected with
it, dropped in after supper to make an evening call. Sadler was familiar
with the history of every man of negro ancestry who had distinguished
himself in any walk of life. He could give the pedigree of Alexander
Pushkin, the titles of scores of Dumas's novels (even Sadler had not
time to learn them all), and could recite the whole of Wendell
Phillips's lecture on Toussaint l'Ouverture. He claimed a personal
acquaintance with Mr. Frederick Douglass, and had been often in
Washington, where he was well known and well received in good colored
society.

"Let me see," he said reflectively, when asked for information about
the Honorable Hamilton M. Brown. "Yes, I think I know him. He studied at
Oberlin just after the war. He was about leaving there when I entered.
There were two H.M. Browns there--a Hamilton M. Brown and a H