When the Grants were visiting some glacier fields in Switzerland, Grant stopped for a smoke with son Jesse, and his wife decided to walk on ahead and join her husband when the carriage caught up with her. After walking a while, she sent her maid Bella to see if her husband and son were coming and when she was told the carriage was on its way, she decided to have a little fun.
”I am going to hide,” she told Bella. “You tell them I am lost, that you do not know where I am.”
”Oh, Madam,” said Bella, “I couldn’t say that, for it would not be true.”
”Well, then,” cried Mrs. Grant, “say ‘When I went to see if you were coming, Mrs. Grant was on that bank. When I returned, she was not there.’ That is literally true.” Then she hid behind a big tree, just as the carriage drove up.
”Why, Bella,” cried Grant, “where is Mrs. Grant?”
Holding her veil up to conceal her laughter, Bella answered as her mistress had instructed. Grant at once leaped out of the carriage and began looking over the precipice.
”Why, of course she was gone on up the mountain,” he finally decided. “Drive on at once,” he told the driver.
At this point Mrs. Grant came out of her hiding place and cried, “Oh General, here I am!” Grant was not amused and he made his displeasure clear. But his wife continued with her teasing. “What did you think had become of me?” she wanted to know.
”I did not know what to think,” confessed Grant. “But,” he added severely, “the next time, I will drive on and leave you.”
Source:
Boller, Paul F. "Julia Dent Grant." Presidential Wives: An Anecdotal History. New York: Oxford UP, 1988. 144-45. Print.
Original Source Listed:
Memoirs, 211-12.
Further Reading:
No comments, yet...