George Washington's Last Duel by Thomas Nelson Page

There was immense excitement at the Towers next day when the visitors / were expected. The Major took twice his usual period to dress; George / Washington with a view to steadying his nerves braced them so tight that / he had great difficulty in maintaining his equipoise, and even Margaret / herself was in a flutter quite unusual to one so self-possessed as she / generally was. When, however, the carriage drove up to the door, the / Major, with Margaret a little in advance, met the visitors at the steps / in all the glory of new blue broadcloth and flowered velvet. Sir Charles / Grandison could not have been more elegant, nor Sir Roger more gracious. / Behind him yet grander stood George -- George Washington -- his master's / fac-simile in ebony down to the bandanna handkerchief and the trick of / waving the right hand in a flowing curve. It was perhaps this spectacle / which saved the Major, for Miss Jemima was so overwhelmed by George / Washington's portentous dignity that she exhibited sufficient humility / to place the Major immediately at his ease, and from this time Miss / Jemima was at a disadvantage, and the Major felt that he was master of / the situation.

The old lady had never been in the South before except for a few days on / the occasion when Margaret had met her and Rose Endicott at the hotel in / R -- -- , and she had then seen just enough to excite her inquisitiveness. / Her natural curiosity was quite amazing. She was desperately bent on / acquiring information, and whatever she heard she set down in a journal, / so as soon as she became sufficiently acquainted with the Major she / began to ply him with questions. Her seat at table was at the Major's / right, and the questions which she put to him proved so embarrassing, / that the old gentleman declared to Margaret that if that old woman knew / as much as she wanted to know she would with her wisdom eclipse / Solomon and destroy the value of the Scriptures. He finally hit upon an / expedient. He either traversed every proposition she suggested, or else / answered every inquiry with a statement which was simply astounding. / She had therefore not been at the Towers a week before she was in the / possession of facts furnished by the Major which might have staggered / credulity itself.