the aspect of Mrs. Bonnycastle's rooms, which even at the height of
the congressional season could scarce be said to overflow with the
representatives of the people. They were garnished with an
occasional Senator, whose movements and utterances often appeared to
be regarded with a mixture of alarm and indulgence, as if they would
be disappointing if they weren't rather odd and yet might be
dangerous if not carefully watched. Our young man had come to
entertain a kindness for these conscript fathers of invisible
families, who had something of the toga in the voluminous folds of
their conversation, but were otherwise rather bare and bald, with
stony wrinkles in their faces, like busts and statues of ancient
law-givers. There seemed to him something chill and exposed in
their being at once so exalted and so naked; there were frequent
lonesome glances in their eyes, as if in the social world their
legislative consciousness longed for the warmth of a few comfortable
laws ready-made. Members of the House were very rare, and when
Washington was new to the inquiring secretary he used sometimes to
mistake them, in the halls and on the staircases where he met them,
for the functionaries engaged, under stress, to usher in guests and
wait at supper. It was only a little later that he perceived these
latter public characters almost always to be impressive and of that
rich racial hue which of itself served as a livery. At present,
however, such confounding figures were much less to be met than
during the months of winter, and indeed they were never frequent at
Mrs. Bonnycastle's. At present the social vistas of Washington,
like the vast fresh flatness of the lettered and numbered streets,
which at this season seemed to Vogelstein more spacious and vague
than ever, suggested but a paucity of political phenomena. Count
Otto that evening knew every one or almost every one. There were
often inquiring strangers, expecting great things, from New York and