But he was an amiable and excellent fellow through all his eccentricities, and he brought to Mrs.Lee the simple outpourings of the amateur politician.
A much higher type of character was Mr.Nathan Gore, of Massachusetts, a handsome man with a grey beard, a straight, sharply cut nose, and a fine, penetrating eye; in his youth a successful poet whose satires made a noise in their day, and are still remembered for the pungency and wit of a few verses; then a deep student in Europe for many years, until his famous "History of Spain in America" placed him instantly at the head of American historians, and made him minister at Madrid, where he remained four years to his entire satisfaction, this being the nearest approach to a patent of nobility and a government pension which the American citizen can attain.

A change of administration had reduced him to private life again, and after some years of retirement he was now in Washington, willing to be restored to his old mission.

Every President thinks it respectable to have at least one literary man in his pay, and Mr.Gore's prospects were fair for obtaining his object, as he had the active support of a majority of the Massachusetts delegation.

He was abominably selfish, colossally egoistic, and not a little vain; but he was shrewd; he knew how to hold his tongue; he could flatter dexterously, and he had learned to eschew satire.

Only in confidence and among friends he would still talk freely, but Mrs.Lee was not yet on those terms with him.