adger, Miss Warfield, Madame Santa Anna,
Mrs. Gore Jones, Madame Mariscal, Madame Dardon, Mrs. Belknap, Mrs.
Robeson, Mrs. Frederick Grant and Miss Dodge ("Gail Hamilton").

In the old Stockton house, next door to the residence of William W.
Corcoran, lived Mr. and Mrs. Elijah Ward who probably entertained more
lavishly than any other family of that day. Mr. Ward was then in
Congress from New York. His wife possessed much grace of manner and a
subtle charm quite impossible to describe. I enjoyed her intimate
friendship and often availed myself of a standing invitation to take tea
with her. In her drawing-room one constantly met acceptable recruits
from social and political life, all of whom she charmed by her affable
conversation and unaffected bearing. Upon her return to New York Miss
Virginia Stuart, her daughter by a former marriage, married the Rev.
Alexander McKay-Smith, assistant rector at St. Thomas' Church. Soon
after his marriage he received a call to St. John's Church in
Washington, where he remained the beloved rector until in 1902 he was
elected Bishop-Coadjutor of Pennsylvania.

It was about this same period that I formed a friendship with Lieutenant
Commander and Mrs. Arent Schuyler Crowninshield. He was then Ordnance
Officer of the Washington Navy Yard and lived in the quaint old house
later assigned to the second line officer of that station. Mrs.
Crowninshield's sister, Elizabeth Hopkins Bradford, lived with her and I
attended her wedding there. She married Edmund Hamilton Smith of
Canandaigua, New York, a son of Judge James C. Smith of the Supreme
Court of that State, and the ceremony was performed by the Rev. Dr. John
Vaughan Lewis of St. John's Church, Washington. This wedding made an
indelible impression upon my memory owing to an unfortunate circumstance
which attended it. The mother of the bride-elect and the latter's
youngest sister, Louise, were traveling in Europe and had arranged their
return passage in ample time, as they supposed, to be present at the
ceremony. The ship met with an accident off the coast of Newfoundland,
however, and during the delay the wedding took place. There was much
anxiety concerning the safety of the bride's mother and sister which
naturally cast an atmosphere of gloom over the marriage feast, but in a
few days the ship came into port and unalloyed happiness prevailed.
After Mr. Crowninshield's promotion to a Captaincy in the Navy he was
ordered to command the _Rich