192 WITH MR. CHAMBERLAIN IN THE 



captain's cabin. He then informed me he was 

 going to confide to me an important secret which 

 he knew he could rely on being in safe keeping. I 

 told him he need have no apprehension on that 

 score. He then unlocked his despatch box, and 

 showing me a very large and pretty photograph of 

 Miss Endicott, announced his engagement to that 

 lady, but the marriage was not to take place till 

 after the Presidential election in the autumn. I 

 was, of course, not wholly unprepared for this 

 announcement, but it was the first authentic in- 

 telligence I had so far received, and I congratu- 

 lated him heartily. Beyond his own family and 

 that of his future bride, and possibly the Presi- 

 dent, I don't think a single soul knew of the 

 engagement till the autumn of that year, and I felt 

 flattered at my Chief taking me into his confidence. 

 Of course, the unauthorised paragraphs that had 

 appeared in the press, to which I have already 

 alluded, led to every one being bombarded with 

 inquiries, to all of which we replied that we knew 

 nothing. Mrs. Henry Edwardes, who always was, 

 and still is, a devoted friend of Mrs. Chamberlain, 

 and very much in her confidence at this period, did 

 not escape. A certain reverend gentleman who was 

 acting as cicerone to a young English nobleman 



