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black Alexis carried it from one group to another. It contained a Richmond Hill specialty, a mixture of homemade peach brandy and champagne, and it was iced—a newfangled innovation which disconcerted some of the older guests, who were convinced that a freezing liquid could not be wholesome.
    Toast after toast was drunk to Theodosia's happiness, and she responded with deep curtsies and laughing thanks. Eyes sparkled, cheeks grew flushed, and still Alexis had not announced that the dinner awaited their pleasure.
    Theo signaled her father in surprise, but he shook his head and glanced toward the door. They were waiting for someone, then. Who? She speculated idly, gave it up, and went on talking to the young men who surrounded her.
    It was past six before Alexis opened the drawing-room door with a dignified flourish. 'Mr. Joseph Alston,' he announced.
    Everyone turned as a heavy young man lumbered in. Theo stared with the rest. He must be a gentleman of consequence or her father would never have kept this distinguished company waiting for him.
    Had she ever heard of Joseph Alston? Something to do with South Carolina, she thought. Political then. He had a pompous air about him; he looked arrogant and humorless. He was of medium height and heavy-set, a circumstance which his bright plum-colored suit did nothing to conceal. It seemed stuffed to bursting across his broad back. His hair was black and cut short a la Brutus; it clustered on his round head in tight curls. Theo thought instantly of a bust of the Emperor Tiberius which she had once seen in a Philadelphia drawing-room: the same thick neck, low forehead, and full, disdainful mouth.
    Alston eyed the assemblage in a lofty manner while Aaron greeted him with emphatic cordiality, and drew him over to Theodosia. 'Mr. Alston, may I present you to my daughter, Miss Burr?'
    Theodosia sketched a curtsy, and the young man bowed. ''S a pleasure, ma'am,' he drawled, with a languid blurring of consonants which she knew to be peculiar to natives of the Southern States.
    'Welcome to Richmond Hill,' she murmured, gave him a bright conventional smile, and turned back to the group behind her, eager to join in their chatter.
    'Theo——' It was Aaron's voice, and, sensitive to its slightest gradations, she heard in the one word that he was displeased with her. 'Mr. Alston has but newly arrived in New York. It will divert him to have you tell him something of the season in town, the balls and the theater. He will take you in to dinner.'
    Her eyes widened. Here was a shattering of precedent. As both hostess and guest of honor tonight, it was fitting that she be escorted by the male guest of highest rank, General Hamilton, Mr. Livingston, or the Count, perhaps. But she was far too well trained to show surprise, and slipped her hand docilely through the arm of the silent young man beside them.
    'Indeed, sir, and are you enjoying our city? Is it from the Carolinas that you come? Such a long journey—you must be fatigued'. She eyed him with fresh interest. He seemed a prodigiously dull gentleman, but her father was never wrong, and if he wished to do Mr. Alston unusual honor, he must have a very good reason.
    Aaron presented his arm to Mrs. Jay, and they all moved toward the dining-room.
    The immense table easily accommodated thirty people. Theo, separated from her father by its whole length, felt his admonishing glance as they took their places.
    The table was piled high with platters: turtle soup, boiled lobsters that had come by sloop from Massachusetts, three great oyster patties flanked by immense joints, one of beef, the other of mutton. Between them, like the smaller islands of an archipelago, were dotted stuffed pheasants and ducks. There were vegetables, too: boiled onions, tiny new beets, and roasted potatoes.
    The guests helped themselves, with the aid of Alexis and his corps of waiters, who facilitated the process when a desired dainty was too far away to be speared with one of the