William Backhouse Astor, who married a
daughter of General John Armstrong, Secretary of War under President
Madison, during at least a portion of his father's life lived in a fine
house on Lafayette Place. I have attended evening parties there that
were exceedingly simple in character, and at which Mrs. Astor was always
plainly dressed and wore no jewels. I have a very distinct recollection
of one of these parties owing to a ludicrous incident connected with
myself. My mother was a woman of decidedly domestic tastes, whose whole
life was so immersed in her large family of children that she never
allowed an event of a social character to interfere with what she
regarded as her household or maternal duties. We older children were
therefore much thrown upon our own resources from a social point of
view, and when I grew into womanhood and entered society I was usually
accompanied to entertainments by my father. Sometimes, however, I went
with my lifelong friend, Margaret Tillotson Kemble, a daughter of
William Kemble, of whom I shall speak hereafter. Upon this particular
occasion I had gone early in the day to the Kembles preparatory to
spending the night there, with the intention of attending a ball at the
Astors'. Having dined, supped, and dressed myself for the occasion, in
company with Miss Kemble and her father I reached the Astor residence,
where I found on the doorstep an Irish maid from my own home awaiting my
arrival. In her hand she held an exquisite bouquet of pink and white
japonicas which had been sent to me by John Still Winthrop, the _fiance_
of Susan Armistead, another of my intimate friends. The bouquet had
arrived just after my departure from home and, quite unknown to my
family, the Irish maid out of the goodness of her heart had taken it
upon herself to see that it was placed in my hands. I learned later
that, much to the amusement of many of the guests, she had been awaiting
my arrival for several hours. It seems almost needless to add that I
carried my flowers throughout the evening with much girlish pride and
pleasure.

Among the guests at this ball was Mrs. Francis R. Boreel, the young and
beautiful daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Langdon, who wore in her dark
hair a diamond necklace, a recent gift from her grandfather, John Jacob
Astor. It was currently rumored at the time that it cost twenty thousand
dollars, which was then a very large amount to invest in a single
article of that character. Mrs. L