James Madison Enchants Harriet Martineau

IT MUST HAVE BEEN AN ODD SIGHT. Former president James Madison-83 years old, hobbled with rheumatism and half deaf sprawled across an easy chair in a black silk dressing gown, his cold arthritic hands encased in gray gloves, his head propped on a pillow and topped with a warm white cap. Meanwhile, his visitor-Harriet Martineau, 32, a British writer who was herself half deaf-sat by the arm of his chair, pointing her ear trumpet toward his lips so she could catch every word uttered by the "father of the Constitution."