The Bow of Orange Ribbon: A Romance of New York

[QUOTATION FROM A LETTER DATED JULY 5, A.D. 1885.]

“Yesterday I went with my aunt to spend ‘the Fourth’ at the Hydes.  They have the most delightful place,—­a great stone house in a wilderness of foliage and beauty, and yet within convenient distance of the railroad and the river-boats.  Why don’t we build such houses now?  You could make a ball-room out of the hall, and hold a grand reception on the staircase.  Kate Hyde said the house is more than a hundred years old, and that the fifth generation is living in it.  I am sure there are pictures enough of the family to account for three hundred years; but the two handsomest, after all, are those of the builders.  They were very great people at the court of Washington, I believe.  I suppose it is natural for those who have ancestors to brag about them, and to show off the old buckles and fans and court-dresses they have hoarded up, not to speak of the queer bits of plate and china; and, I must say, the Hydes have a really delightful lot of such bric-a-brac.  But the strangest thing is the ‘household talisman.’  It is not like the luck of Eden Hall:  it is neither crystal cup, nor silver vase, nor magic bracelet, nor an old slipper.  But they have a tradition that the house will prosper as long as it lasts, and so this precious palladium is carefully kept in a locked box of carved sandal-wood; for it is only a bit of faded satin that was a love-token,—­a St. Nicholas Bow of Orange Ribbon.”