the quite new
character of jester in cap and bells, under whose influence he dashed
off humorous and satirical squibs at the expense of the professors and
students, of which the lines on Lieutenant Locke are a specimen. These
he recited for the benefit of the little parties that gathered in Number
28, by whom they were regarded as master-pieces of wit and were
circulated through the school.

But he took no real pleasure in this perversion of his poetical gift,
and feeling his soul cramped and cabined by the uncongeniality of his
surroundings, he soon became convinced that West Point was not the place
for him, and that he should leave it as soon as possible. He wrote Mr.
Allan of his dissatisfaction--begging his assistance in securing a
discharge. At no time would this request have been granted but it came
at the most inopportune moment imaginable.

Some time before, certain ladies in Richmond who professed "to know the
signs," had given out the interesting news that Mr. Allan was "taking
notice." True it was that though such a thing had seemed impossible, his
stocks were higher and more precisely folded than ever, his broadcloth
was of a finer texture, his knee-buckles shone with a brighter lustre,
but the most marked change in him was a certain springiness of gait
altogether new to his silk-stockinged calves, and almost youthful, and a
pleased expression of the hitherto stern eyes and mouth which made his
usually solemn vizage look as if it might break out into smiles at any
moment.

The signs, the ladies said, dated from the arrival of at "Powhatan," the
country seat of the Mayo family, just below Richmond, of a fair
guest--Miss Louisa Patterson, of Philadelphia. This lady was no longer
young, according to the severe standards of that time of early marriages
and correspondingly early "old-maidenhood," but so much the better, as
she was therefore of suitable age for the elderly though spruce and
prosperous widower. She was, withal, a decidedly personable woman with
the elegant manners and conversation of the inner circles of the
exclusive, stately society in which she had been nurtured--just the
woman, the fair prophetesses said, to rule over John Allan (for
everybody knew that a man who ruled his first wife was invariably ruled
by his second) and to preside with distinction and taste over his
drawing-room and his board. She was as suitable, in fact for the wife of
ripe age as the flower-like Frances had been for t