ough he does not seem
to have been at all handsome, he was always profoundly fascinating to
women. It is doubtful (in spite of his second marriage at seventy odd)
if he ever loved anyone very deeply after his wife Theodosia's death,
but it is very certain indeed that a great, great many loved him!

Richmond Hill was the scene of one exceedingly quaint incident during
the very first year that Burr and his young daughter lived in it.

Burr was in Philadelphia on political business, and fourteen-year-old
Theo was in charge in the great house on the Hill a mile and a half
from New York. Imagine any modern father leaving his little girl
behind in a more or less remote country place with a small army of
servants under her and full and absolute authority over them and
herself! But I take it that there are not many modern little girls
like Theodosia Burr. Certainly there are very few who could translate
the American Constitution into French, and Theo did that while she was
still a slip of a girl, merely to please her adored father!

Which is a digression.

In some way Burr had made the acquaintance of the celebrated Indian
Chief of the Mohawks, Tha-yen-da-ne-gea. He was intelligent, educated
and really a distinguished orator, and Burr took a great fancy to him.
The Chief had adopted an American name,--Joseph Brant,--and had
acquired quite a reputation. He was en route for Washington, but
anxious to see New York before he went. So Burr sent him to Richmond
Hill, and gave him a letter to present to Theo, saying that his
daughter would take care of him!

The letter runs:

"... This will be handed to you by Colonel Brant, the
celebrated Indian Chief.... He is a man of education....
Receive him with respect and hospitality. He is not one of
those Indians who drink rum, but is quite a gentleman; not
one who will make you fine bows, but one who understands and
practises what belongs to propriety and good-breeding. He
has daughters--if you could think of some little present to
send to one of them (a pair of earrings for example) it
would please him...."

Even the prodigiously resourceful Theo was a bit taken aback by this
sudden proposition. In the highly cosmopolitan circle that she was
used to entertaining, she so far had encountered no savages, and, in
common with most young people, she thought of "Brant" as a fierce
barbarian who,--her father's letter notwithstanding,--probably