The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson Compiled From Family Letters and ReminiscencesRandolph, Sarah N. (Sarah Nicholas)
History
The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson Compiled From Family Letters and Reminiscences
Randolph, Sarah N. (Sarah Nicholas)
Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826; Presidents -- United States -- Biography
_Head._ It would have been happy for you if my diagrams and
crotchets had gotten you to sleep on that day, as you are
pleased to say they eternally do.... While I was occupied with
these objects, you were dilating with your new acquaintances,
and contriving how to prevent a separation from them. Every soul
of you had an engagement for the day. Yet all these were to be
sacrificed, that you might dine together. Lying messages were to
be dispatched into every quarter of the city, with apologies for
your breach of engagement. You, particularly, had the effrontery
to send word to the Duchess Danville, that on the moment we were
setting out to dine with her, dispatches came to hand which
required immediate attention. You wanted me to invent a more
ingenious excuse, but I knew you were getting into a scrape,
and I would have nothing to do with it. Well; after dinner to
St. Cloud, from St. Cloud to Ruggieri's, from Ruggieri's to
Krumfoltz; and if the day had been as long as a Lapland summer
day, you would still have contrived means among you to have
filled it.
_Heart._ Oh! my dear friend, how you have revived me, by
recalling to my mind the transactions of that day! How well
I remember them all, and that when I came home at night, and
looked back to the morning, it seemed to have been a month
agone. Go on, then, like a kind comforter, and paint to me the
day we went to St. Germains. How beautiful was every object!
the Pont de Renilly, the hills along the Seine, the rainbows of
the machine of Marly, the terras of St. Germains, the chateaux,
the gardens, the statues of Marly, the pavilion of Lucienne.
Recollect, too, Madrid, Bagatelle, the King's Garden, the
Dessert. How grand the idea excited by the remains of such a
column. The spiral staircase, too, was beautiful....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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