And the second fire of 1845.

His father had been a man then, married, a prominent citizen, old enough, as Mr.Lanley said, with a faint smile, to have lost heavily.

He could himself remember the New York of the Civil War, the bitter family quarrels, the forced resignations from clubs, the duels, the draft riots.
But, oddly enough, when it came to contemporary New York, it was Mrs.
Wayne who turned out to be most at home.

Had he ever walked across the Blackwell's Island Bridge?
(This was in the days before it bore the elevated trains.) No, he had driven.

Ah, she said, that was wholly different.