While at West Point, his roommate invited him to spend a furlough at his father’s home, at White Haven, near St. Louis. They arrived without announcing their coming, and he met the sister of his chum, Julia Dent, then about seventeen. He was greatly attracted to her, the interest seemed to be mutual, and other visits followed more frequently after graduation. After Lieutenant Grant took his departure at the close of one of these he found the memories of Miss Julia so compelling that he returned to pursue his attentions to her. Their betrothal occurred while they were crossing the Gravois. They were in a light rig, the young man driving, the waters swollen and the current so swift from recent heavy rains that they were in grave danger. The manner of her clinging to him in her fear of the water inspired him with the courage to propose to her in the midst of the stream. In after years, she often related to her grandchildren the story of the betrothal, placing special stress on the significance of the old superstition that prophesied unusual strength and constancy to any pledge made over running water. Mrs. Grant also told the tale of her dream. The night before the first meeting, she had a vivid dream, in which she met, loved, and married a young officer whose name she did not know and whom she had never seen. After she became engaged, she told her sisters, the dream was “out.” From the beginning of their romance until she closed her hero husband’s eyes in death, no one else could ever equal or compare with him in her estimation of his appearance, character, or achievements.