March 19. Walked to West Thirtieth Street at ten tonight to escort Ellie home from what I supposed was to be the smallest of aesthetic and family tea-drinkings at the Toppans’. (Mrs. Toppan is a first cousin of Mr. Ruggles.) Found some fifty people solemnizing “the lancers” and stayed till midnight, mostly in discourse with Mrs. John Sherwood, Mrs. Judge Ruggles, and Ellie’s grandmamma, who seems well again and has renewed her youth. Mrs. Sherwood and the Judges were very gracious and agreeable, and nothing went wrong but I’ve come home tired and bored and blue and in an evil temper. The Toppans’ house is pleasant. They have filled it with nice pictures and engravings and other indicia of civilization; they have lived much abroad and seem uncommonly refined and amiable people.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
Poor George sounds disgruntled. Remember, early to bed and early to rise ...