The dinner was remarkably well cooked in the French
style, but most deficient in quantity, and we rose from table nearly as
hungry as we sat down. Some of the ladies appeared at dinner in evening
dresses, with short sleeves (made _very_ short) and low bodies, a tulle
pelerine being stretched tight over their bare necks. In some cases the
hair was dressed with large ornamental pins and artificial flowers, as
for an evening party. We met them out walking later in the evening, with
light shawls or visites on their shoulders, no bonnets, and large fans
in their hands. This toilette was fully accounted for by the heat, the
thermometer being at 80 deg. in the shade. Many of the younger women were
very pretty, and pleasing in their manners.
We left West Point early on Monday morning, the 6th, taking the
steamboat back to New York, leaving William to pursue his journey to the
White Mountains and Montreal alone, and we are to meet him again at
Boston next week. The steamboat was well worth seeing, being a wonderful
floating house or palace, three stories high, almost consisting of two
or three large saloons, much gilt and decorated, and hung with prints
and filled with passengers. The machinery rises in the centre of the
vessel, as high nearly as the funnel. We went at the rate of twenty
miles an hour.
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