[Illustration: ALICE LONGWORTH IN HER WEDDING GOWN] One would suppose that the decorator’s art would be taxed to its limit in the beautifying of the Pension Office each fourth year for these historic functions, but each setting in turn seems far to surpass all of its predecessors. The artists always manage to find some new feature upon which to concentrate their skill, and lo!--the result is beautiful beyond description. There is no building in the Capital City so well adapted for the purpose of the ball or so susceptible of transformation into such a fairyland picture as the big Pension Office with its open court, tiers of balconies, tall columns, and ample floor space. For the Roosevelt inaugural ball the room resembled a Venetian garden so lovely as to rival even a tropical moonlight scene. Some of the huge palms that were used reached forty feet from the floor. Mrs. Roosevelt won golden opinions from the public during her seven years as First Lady of the Land; she gave more private entertainments of all kinds than any of her predecessors. Official mourning for President McKinley was observed at the beginning of her régime, and when that was concluded, the condition of the mansion limited social activities for a time. The floors, which were not safe, had been braced and shored up. But after the remodelling, so long deferred, the entertainments, official and private, followed each other with a frequency that delighted society. Mrs. Roosevelt gave more than two hundred teas, luncheons, musicales, receptions, and dinners, outside of the regular state affairs. In these, her own personal and semi-official functions for all sorts of people whom she considered interesting or to whom she felt White House courtesies due, she followed her husband’s example of touching all circles and classes. While meeting admirably every official demand, Mrs. Roosevelt protected her private life with the same tactful cleverness by which she had early evaded the rigours of reception handshaking. The First Lady made it clearly understood that it was her husband who was President, and that his family did not belong to the public. Mrs. Roosevelt kept no housekeeper, but gave personal supervision to the entire establishment. But she made immediately a much-needed and highly important addition to the White House staff, a social secretary for herself. For this position she chose Miss Belle Hagner, long a friend, who was so thoroughly identified through resident and family connections with Washington’s peculiar social etiquette and the much more intricate code of procedure that governs the White House that she quickly became invaluable. Since the mail of the First Lady of the Land has come to rival that of her husband in the number and variety of demands and requests that besiege her, Mrs. Roosevelt had at once seen the necessity of organizing the handling of this volume of correspondence in a systematic way.