deceased,--a woman of great eccentricities, but of a wonderfully
masculine mind, and of great cultivation. It was a fancy of hers to give
special, social patronage to foreign artists; and among those just then
at Saratoga, and the recipients of her favor, were a distinguished
violinist--whose name I do not now recall--and the newly married Mme.
Alboni. Mr. Irving, in common with her other acquaintances, she was
inclined to make contributory to her attentions. To this Mr. Irving was
not averse, both from his extreme love of music, and his kindliness
toward the artists themselves; yet, in his own quiet way, I think he
fretted considerably at being pounced upon at odd hours to give them
French talk.

"It's very awkward," said he to me one day; "I have had large occasion
for practice to be sure; but I rather fancy, after all, our own
language; it's heartier and easier."

He was utterly incapable of being lionized. Time and again, under the
trees in the court of the hotel, did I hear him enter upon some pleasant
story, lighted up with that rare turn of his eye, and by his deft
expressions, when, as chance acquaintances grouped about him,--as is the
way of watering-places,--and eager listeners multiplied, his hilarity
and spirit took a chill from the increasing auditory, and drawing
abruptly to a close, he would sidle away with a friend and be gone.

Among the visitors was a tall, interesting young girl--from Louisiana,
if I mistake not--who had the reputation of being a great heiress, and
who was, of course, beset by a host of admirers. There was something
very attractive in her air, and Mr. Irving was never tired of gazing on
her as she walked, with what he called a "faun-like step," across the
lawn, or up and down the corridors. Her eyes too--"dove-like," he