On Friday, December 23, 1854, just a day after she had first laid eyes on him, Mary Evelyn Anderson found herself once more in the company of Judge Brockenbrough's handsome young law student, Charles Burks Christian.

This time Miss Anderson and Mr. Christian met at a "fair," staged by the new rector of Lexington's Grace Episcopal Church, the Reverend William Nelson Pendleton.

Pendleton's Christmas "fair" was, by all accounts, one of the highlights of the Lexington social season.

Forty six years old, and an Episcopal priest, the senior Pendleton had graduated from West Point with the class of 1830. He would later rise to the rank of Brigadier General and command Robert E. Lee's artillery. His only son, "Sandie," a Washington College student in 1854, was both talented and popular. He would later serve on the staffs of Confederate Generals Stonewall Jackson, Richard Ewell and Jubal Early.

"All the beauty and fashion of Lexington" were to be at Reverend Pendleton's fair, according to VMI Cadet John Howard Sharp. and best of all, he wrote to a friend, VMI's cadets were to be allowed to attend.

The occasion demanded nothing less than spit and polish, boots and brass, haircut and shave, for all those who could afford it (or were old enough to need it.)

Thus, early on Friday morning, the day of the fair, Cadet Thomas Blackburn found himself surrounded by VMI cadets, Washington College and law school students, waiting for service at the barber shop in Mr. Edwin Porter's Lexington Hotel, conveniently located not far from the Rockbridge County Courthouse on Lexington's Main Street.

Despite providing what one guest described as "narrow and uncomfortable quarters," Porter's was one of the most popular boarding houses in Lexington. Reverend Pendleton, his wife and young Sandie, had, in fact, lived there for four months while the Episcopal Parish House was undergoing repairs.

Major Thomas Jackson had boarded there too, along with VMI Professor Thomas H. Williamson and his wife. So had Junious Fishburne, a Washington College professor who, like Jackson, would marry one of Washington College President George Junkin's daughters.

Charles Harrison, another of Judge Brockenbrough's students and best-man at Major Jackson's wedding had also boarded there. Indeed, at any given time one could expect to find an interesting mix of fifty or sixty boarders at Porter's, including large contingents of young lawyers and most, if not all, of Judge Brockenbrough's law students.

It was, thus, not altogether surprising for Cadet Blackburn to find seated ahead of him in the barber shop C. B. Christian, 5'8", dark-haired, fair-skinned, described by a friend of Blackburn's as "...a small dudish black-eyed, black-haired, good looking man with a well-caredfor black moustache."

Christian was 20, "boyish in appearance, but not delicate . . . rather thick-set and muscular."

The barber, in the timehonored tradition of his trade, played to the waiting crowd, teasing Christian a little as he worked, sometimes playing to his vanity, and telling him in a stage whisper as he let him up and out of the chair that he was, "a regular lady killer." Christian quipped in reply, "I can seduce any woman in Lexington."

In ante-bellum, straitlaced, Presbyterian Lexington the very word "seduction" was, if not taboo, not one to be used lightly, and certainly not a word to be tolerated when applied by another man to a member of one's own family.

Though Cadet Blackburn clearly overheard the remark, he nevertheless chose not to confront Christian immediately.

Indeed, according to Cadet Sharp, Blackburn said nothing at all, returned to the VMI barracks in shock and there "brooded" over what he had seen and heard "for some time" before heading back into Lexington, Grace Church and Reverend Pendleton's fair.

Soon after arriving at the fair, Sharp remembered, Blackburn found himself "...not a little surprised to see...Miss Anderson on the arm of Christian and promenading with him." Mary Anderson later swore that Christian's behavior was boorish, and "ungentlemanly" and his attentions "very disagreeable." The question of her 24-hour-old prior agreement to "walk out" with Christian to Christmas Sunday evening services "was not mentioned that night," she said, and if, per chance, it had been, she swore she had already "determined not to walk out with him to church."

Mary later testified that, on the carriage ride home from the fair, she had told her aunt, Evalina Alexander Moore and VMI professor Lieutenant Daniel Truehart in no uncertain terms of her decision to not see Christian.

All this, she also swore, was well before her cousin Tom Blackburn, said "one word" to her about the man."

A. G. Strayer, a law student from New Market and a good friend of Christian's also remembered seeing Christian and Mary Evelyn Anderson together at Reverend Pendleton's Grace Church fair.

Strayer described Miss Anderson "a lady of great personal attractions" but admitted he couldn't say whether "...Christian's attentions were either disagreeable or very acceptable..." to her, because he himself had been too busy, "...engaged in talking to another lady."

Blackburn was soon made aware of Christian's behavior, however, and clearly discussed at length both his cousin's "promenade" at the fair and his earlier encounter with Christian in the barber shop.

Less than twenty four hours later on Saturday morning, Christmas eve, Blackburn marched out of the VMI barracks, past Superintendent Francis Henney Smith's quarters, past the VMI Porter's Lodge to the nearby Samuel McDowell Moore house to speak to cousin Mary Evelyn about Charles Burks Christian.

She would later swear that Blackburn called on her that day only "to apologize for allowing Charles Christian to annoy me with his attentions." Blackburn told her, she said, that he had, in fact, already left the fair before he became aware of Christian's boorish conduct.

Apparently Blackburn did not tell her about the incident in the barber shop or about Christian's use of the word, "seduction."

In any case, by all accounts Mary Evelyn never spoke of it, and it may very well have been the case that Blackburn, out of either embarrassment or courtesy, had never mentioned it to her.

Whatever the case, it is clear that Blackburn and Mary Evelyn spoke at some length about Christian, and whatever he said confirmed her determination not to "walk out" him to church or anywhere else.

Blackburn then advised her, she said, to make her intentions absolutely clear by writing Christian a note, formally canceling their Christmas "engagement."

In the midst of this conversation Mary Evelyn's uncle, the bluff and outspoken Samuel McDowell Moore, walked in.

Mary Evelyn asked his advice and, he agreed, completely and emphatically with Cadet Blackburn's suggestion that she make her intentions clear.

Thus, immediately after Blackburn left to return to the VMI barracks, Mary Evelyn Anderson dutifully penned a one-line note addressed to Charles Burks Christian.

She waited until the next day, however, to deliver it, sending it to Christian only after her return from Christmas morning services at the Lexington Presbyterian Church.

Christian thus received Mary Evelyn Anderson's note, in the presence of his friends, just hours before he was due to walk the most beautiful woman in Lexington to church.

The note was thus not only totally unexpected, but a public, and completely humiliating rejection, delivered in less than a dozen words.

"Miss Anderson declines going to church with Mr. Christian this evening."