to that domestic happiness to
which so large a part of his nature responded.

You reproach me with not having said enough about our little
stranger. When I wrote last I was not sufficiently acquainted with
him to give you his character. I may now assure you that your
daughter, when she sees him, will not consult you about her choice,
or will only do it in respect to the rules of decorum. He is truly
a very fine young gentleman, the most agreeable in conversation and
manners of any I ever knew, nor less remarkable for his
intelligence and sweetness of temper. You are not to imagine by my
beginning with his mental qualifications that he is defective in
personal. It is agreed on all hands that he is handsome; his
features are good, his eye is not only sprightly and expressive,
but it is full of benignity. His attitude in sitting is, by
connoisseurs, esteemed graceful, and he has a method of waving his
hand that announces the future orator. He stands, however, rather
awkwardly, and as his legs have not all the delicate slimness of
his father's, it is feared he may never excel as much in dancing,
which is probably the only accomplishment in which he will not be a
model. If he has any fault in manners, he laughs too much. He has
now passed his seventh month.

Happy by temperament, Hamilton was at this time happier in his
conditions--barring the Receivership--than any vague, wistful, crowded
dream had ever presaged. His wife was adorable and pretty, sprightly and
sympathetic, yet accomplished in every art of the Dutch housewife; and
although he was far too modest to boast, he was privately convinced that
his baby was the finest in the Confederacy. He had a charming little
home, and Troup, the genial, hearty, and solid, was a member of it. In
General and Mrs. Schuyler he had found genuine parents, who strove to
make him forget that he had ever been without a home. He had been forced
to refuse offers of assistance from his father-in-law again and again.
He would do nothing to violate his strong sense of personal
independence; he had half of the arrears of his pay, Troup his share of
the expenses of the little house. He knew that in a short time he should
be making an income. The cleverest of men, however, can be hoodwinked by
the subtle sex. The great Saratoga estate of the Schuylers furnished the
larder of the Hamiltons with many th