But this was a dis
It may have been on that second
cruise—it was once when he was up
the Mediterranean—that Mrs. Graff,
the celebrated Southern beauty of
those days, danced with him. They
had been lying a long time in the Bay
of Naples, and the officers were very
intimate in the English fleet, and there
had been great festivities, and our
men thought they must give a great
ball on board the ship,
ever did it on board the Warren I am
sure I do not know. Perhaps it was
not the Warren, or perhaps ladies did
not take up so much room as they
do now. They wanted to use Nolan's
stateroom for something, and they
hated to do it without asking him to
the ball; so the captain said they
How they
might him, they responsible that he did not talk with
the wrong people, "who would give him
intelligence." So the dance went on,
the finest party that had ever been
known, I dare say; for I never heard
of a man-of-war ball that was not. For
ladies they had the family of the
American consul, one or two travelers
who had adventured so far, and a nice
bevy of English girls and matrons, perhaps Lady Hamilton herself.
Well, different officers relieved each
other in standing and talking with Nolan in a friendly way, so as to be sure
that nobody else spoke to him. The
dancing went on with spirit, and after
a while even the fellows who took this
honorary guard of Nolan ceased to fear
any contretemps.
English lady—Lady Hamilton, as I
said, perhaps, called for a set of
"American dancers," an odd thing happened.  pened. Everybody then danced contrances. 