Page:The Ladies of the White House.djvu/195

Rh without the lees, and inhaled the perpetual breath of summer, even after the snows of winter had clogged the dull course of life. She was gifted with that which was better than Ithuriel's spear, whose touch reveals the beauty which existed in everything, for she was humble-hearted, tolerant and sincere. Entirely free from malignant cavil, her instinctive sympathy with the good and beautiful led her to seek it in everything around her, and her life, if not devoted to the higher cultivation of the mind, developed the sunny brightness of her heart.

The power of adaptiveness was a live-giving principle in Mrs. Madison's nature. With a desire to please, and a willingness to be pleased, she was popular in society, and was to her husband a support and friend. Washington was little more than a wilderness, when, in the spring, she commenced life there as the wife of a cabinet officer. The elements which combined to form the society of the Capital were various, and difficult to harmonize, and her situation was a delicate one to fill; yet she was loved by all parties, and embittered politicians who never met save at her hospitable board, there forgot "the thorns of public controversy under the roses of private cheerfulness." In those days steamboats were just beginning, railroads unknown, stage-coaches extremely inconvenient, national, indeed even turnpike roads were very rare, and the journeys were mostly performed in the saddle. The daughter of one of the senators, who wished to enjoy the gayeties of the Capital,