I checked as gently as I could a joviality which I thought unsuited to the time. "Mr. Dandridge," said I to him, "you know the Baroness von Ritz?" "Certainly! The _particeps criminis_ of our bungled wedding--of course I know her!" "I only want to say," I remarked, "that the Baroness von Ritz has that little shell clasp now all for her own, and that I have her slipper again, all for my own. So now, we three--no, four--at last understand one another, do we not? Jack, will you do two things for me?" "All of them but two." "When the Baroness von Ritz insists on her intention of leaving us--just at the height of all our happiness--I want you to hand her to her carriage. In the second place, I may need you again--" "Well, what would any one think of that!" said Jack Dandridge. I never knew when these two left us in the crowd. I never said good-by to Helena von Ritz. I did not catch that last look of her eye. I remember her as she stood there that night, grave, sweet and sad. I turned to Elisabeth. There in the crash of the reeds and brasses, the rise and fall of the sweet and bitter conversation all around us, was the comedy and the tragedy of life. "Elisabeth," I said to her, "are you not ashamed?" She looked me full in the eye. "No!" she said, and smiled. I have never seen a smile like Elisabeth's. THE END EPILOGUE "'Tis the Star Spangled Banner; O, long may it wave, O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!" --_Francis Scott Key_. On the night that Miss Elisabeth Churchill gave me her hand and her heart for ever--for which I have not yet ceased to thank God--there began the guns of Palo Alto. Later, there came the fields of Monterey, Buena Vista, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Cherubusco, Molino del Rey--at last the guns sounded at the gate of the old City of Mexico itself. Some of that fighting I myself saw; but much of the time I was employed in that manner of special work which had engaged me for the last few years. It was through Mr. Calhoun's agency that I reached a certain importance in these matters; and so I was chosen as the commissioner to negotiate a peace with Mexico. This honor later proved to be a dangerous and questionable one. General Scott wanted no interference of this kind, especially since he knew Mr. Calhoun's influence in my choice. He thwarted all my attempts to reach the headquarters of the enemy, and did everything he could to secure a peace of his own, at the mouth of the cannon. I could offer no terms better than Mr. Buchanan, then our secretary of state, had prepared for me, and these were rejected by the Mexican government at last. I was ordered by Mr. Polk to state that we had no better terms to offer; and as for myself, I was told to return to Washington. At that time I could not make my way out through the lines, nor, in truth, did I much care to do so.