The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-01-31
PEGGY O'NEAL

not the slave"
Just what the General would intend
/ by this last l had no opportunity 10
discover. for the Jealous Jim was heard
at the door, ushering in our Peg.
Never mind, Miss Peg l could
hear Jim say, in a way of patronlzing
| reinsurance, and evidently in combat
of some suggestion of Pegs that she
| would defer her appearance among US
| never mind about d'Marse Mayor an
| dMarse Central an that red-head Jew
! gentleman argufyin'. That don count
| for nothin'; they're alters at IL, hlSht
! an day, argufyin' away ike they
amt got a minute to live, and nothin
| to never come of it. Never mind en-,
Miss Peg; you'aH jes trapse right
along in an declar your urrent.
With Pegs coming, Noah made polite
expedition to retire. nothing one might
do or say would serve to keep him. He
who could look a man in the eye
and stand knee to knee with him for
life or death, feared woman as though
she were a ghost and fled from the
mere sight of her.
Il am somewhat abashed," said Peg,
''to think of the disturbance l have
caused, and that I drive away your
visitor" This to the General why
did you not make him stay? l shall
never forget my debt to him; and I'm
glad, too, he is so much your favor
ite."
Noah puts us all in his debt" said
the General. ITO me he is the man
remarkable; fine, high, yet bold and
quick, there win be no one to take
his place when he is gone"
Pegs purpose was to tell the GEN
eral-for he had asked the question
in a little note that morning-how she
should like the dinner and that East
Room dance he offered, on the next
evening but one.
rs not the time too short" asked
the General. "Forty-eight hours would
seem no mighty space for folk to make
themselves prepared. They may own
other engagements"
There will be no engagements" said
Peg. THE season is quite at an end;
the Redsticks, as you christened them,
closed their defeated doors six weeks
ago, and for our own side, we only
continued our receptions two weeks
longer to show how we remained mas
tiers of the field. There will stand
nothing in the way; and as for space
TO be ready in, why, then, folk don't
need hours, but only minutes, when the
invitation is from the White House."
Let us say the day following to-
morrow, then" said the General. 1T
shall be for your victory, child, and
to celebrate it. Also, since the losers
as well as the vlctors have proper place
in a triumph, and, again, because 1t
will look like the olive branch and
an expression of peace, we will bid
both friend and foe to this merry
making, and mark it with as wide
good feeling as our opponents will ac-
cent"
Pegs dinner, as dinners go, was a
creature of magnificence, with Peg,
beautiful as a moss rose, at the Cen
erals right, and Dolly MadisOn's own
silver-massy, and, as the women said,
"gorgeous'-to glisten on the white ma
perry. The Generals wide-flung invi-
tations We're as widely accepted; and
not alone the Van Burens and the
Krudeners and the Vaughns, but the
Calhouns and the Berriens and the
Branches, and all of the sept of Multi
fication, were there, as though to put
down any surmise of sulky fear for
themselves to be the offshoot of that
conflict of the toasts. Even the friv
olous Pigeon breast was with us UNI
dismayed; albeit he practice a for
bearance touching Peg; and never
once after the first fOrmalties so far
forgot his caution as to be near
enough to that sparkling lady to court
the awful hazard of her glance.
There came but one clash beneath
lily nbllCts anu lidN NOuAu lNta NY
humOr. Houston was just come into
town, as rude and tangled a gentle
man in every potter technicality as
the bears of his native woods. With
him for his table-mate he bore away
the wife of Ingham of the Treasury.
Houston guarded his prize to her place
with a ferocious backwOods vigilance
as though it were indeed the enemys
country and they in peril of some In
~ do with nj,
they entered. The lady. with a tact as
crude as Houston's knowledge of the
drawing room, perceiving the savag-
cries of her protector, would be prompt
to establish herself as directress of
his manners. Poor Houston suffered
more than once the humiliation of the
lady's counsel, given in a high OBJ
vious voice, and with the manner of
one who corrects novice dull to the
confines of despair.
The rupture befell over fish and when
a portion of delicate pompano was
placed before the headlong Houston.
That is not the fish fork" eau
toned the lady in whisper so loud it
bred a smile on thirty faces either side
of her; that is not the fish fork; here,
take this"
by Satan's hoofs, madam!" ex-
claimed the wrathful Houston, whose
long-stified resentment would now be
in the saddle, at the same time bran
dishing the huge trident he had some
| how gotten hold on; "by Satan's hoofs
keep your fish forks for whom you
will. For myself, I'll eat this catfish
with my saber If have the mind"
Later I heard the distempered lady
| confide to a neighbor how Houston
was IAN untaught brute" while that
| hurt hero told me on his word as a
man that for those several hours he
was in her company, he had less of
| ease than at the Horseshoe. where he
was given four wounds.
The East Room, when agile ones
would dance, was brilliant in white
| and gold and crystal chandeliers, with
| floor of water-soaked oak so polished
it reflected the gay dresses like a look
| ing-glass, and so slippery that clumsy
ones, like myself, went gingerly about
| 1t in terror for their bones.
Peg was as glorious as star and
to me never more lovely, albeit my
coral on her bosom may have had
somewhat to do with that. And to
see her so bowed to and hattered was
like perfume; for it looked as though
I the foe would forego those old-time tao
| tics Of distance and aVerted gaze, and
! that a new word was abroad in Pegs
behalf. There came no one to more