The steamship Trave of the North German Lloyd docked at its Hoboken
pier at eight o'clock one morning in December. Among the passengers who
presently departed from the vessel was a woman who attracted unusual
attention for the reason that she was accompanied by a considerable
suite of retainers and servants who were for a time as busy as flies
around a honey pot, caring for their mistress' baggage, and otherwise
attending to the details of her arrival. Nor was it alone for this
reason that all eyes were from time to time turned in her direction.
There was about her a certain air of distinction, wealth, power and
repose, which impressed itself upon the observers. Many there were who
sought eagerly an opportunity to scan the features of this young
woman's face, for that she was young, was immediately apparent, and the
fact added not a little to the interest that was manifested in her.
The young woman, whoever she was, maintained an air of reserve which
raised a barrier beyond which none of the curious might penetrate; and
as if insolently disdainful of the attention she attracted, her face
remained veiled; not too thickly, but effectively enough to set at
naught these efforts of the curious throng.
A view of her face was, however, not required to determine in the minds
of the beholders that she possessed more than ordinarily, the
attractive feminine qualities. Her very presence told that; the air
with which she moved about among her servitors; the simple gestures she
made in giving her directions, and the quiet but resourceful and
effective methods she used in administering her affairs, indicated that
not only was she a person of great wealth, but that she was also high
in place and in authority, and one who was accustomed to being obeyed.
Her costume was hidden entirely beneath the magnificent furs which
enveloped her, and even the maid who attended upon her immediate wants
was more elaborately gowned and wrapped than the average feminine
personage of the western world is wont to be.
The immediate party of this distinguished passenger soon took its
departure from the pier, leaving behind only those whose various duties
consisted in caring for the seventy-odd pieces of baggage soon to be
taken from the hold of the vessel; and this immediate party departed
from the pier in carriages, for the hotel where accommodations had
already been secured. The young woman and her maid occupied a
conveyance by themselves; other maids followed in a second one, and a
third contained two footmen, a courier and her official messenger.
At the hotel, where notice of her arrival in the city had been
received, she was assigned to a suite of rooms which occupied the
greater part of one entire floor and which included every convenience
which the most illustrious personage travelling in the United States
could have required, or would have found it possible to obtain.