54 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS
unlimited. Everybody knows his telegraphed complaint to the United States Commissary Department that the mules he had been getting lately were most unsatisfac- tory and he wished they would provide a better quality. Even more amusing is the correspondence that occurred at Lewinsville. One of Stuart's old comrades wrote, ad- dressing him by his West Point nickname. " My dear Beauty, — I am sorry that circumstances are such that I can't have the pleasure of seeing you, although so near you. Griffin says he would like to have you dine with him at Willard's at 5 o'clock on Saturday next. Keep your Black Horse off me, if you please. Yours, etc., Orlando M. Poe." On the back of this was penciled in Stuart's writing: **I have the honor to report that * cir- cumstances ' were such that they could have seen me if they had stopped to look behind, and I answered both at the cannon's mouth. Judging from his speed. Griffin surely left for Washington to hurry up that dinner." ^^
I had an old friend who adored the most violent melo- drama. When the curtain and his tears had fallen to- gether, he would sigh and murmur, *'Now let's have a little of that snare-drum music." Such was Stuart. " It might almost be said that music was his passion," writes his biographer.60 I doubt, however, whether he dealt largely in the fugues of Bach. His favorites, in the seri- ous order, are said to have been *'The dew is on the blossom," and " Sweet Evelina." But his joy was the up- roarious "If you get there before I do" ; or his precious
�� �
