much occupied with the affairs of the great American people. For all he was the furthest remove from a mere party contestant or spoilsman, neither his ri

oung couple occurred to him at once, but he instantly realized the extreme poverty of the chance that he should see them. T

t's door, the Richlings came out of theirs, the husband talking with animation, and the wife, all suns

r years microscopic, had again become visible, and her girlish face was prettily set in one whose flowers and ribbon, just joyous and no more, were reflected again in the double-skirted silk barége; while the dark mantilla that drooped away from the broad lace c

o the faces of the two young peop

on," they sai

with each. The meeting was an emphatic pleasure to him

g the air?

out," said

fe, knitting her fingers about her hus

not comf

ooms are larger

topic suited to so fleeting a moment, and when they had smiled all

ork?" asked the D

instant into her husband'

-He remembered the Doctor's word about letters, stopped suddenly, and

ful thanks; but beside the cheer, or behind it, in the husband's face, was there not the look of one who feels the odds against him? And yet, while the two men's hands still held each other, the look vanished,

saw again the young wife look quickly up into her husband's face, and across that face flit and disappear

thought to himself; "I w

ag

aid about the letters. Not but I wa

y have magnified wifehood more, in her way, than he did in his. May be both ways

disappointments, their mood grew gay and gayer. Everything that met the eye was quaint and droll to them: men, women, things, places,-all were more or less outlandish. The grotesqueness of the African, and especially the French-ton

into her inquiries and comments covert double meanings, intended for

ad, single-story thing, cowering between two high buildings, its eaves

ade for weak eye

s and retreats before they got inside. But they were in there at length, and busily engaged inquiring into the availability of a small, lace-curtained, front room, when Richling took his wife so completely off her guard by addressing her as "Madam," in the tone an

wife, blushing. "We must stop

at higher pitch their humor might have carried them if Mrs. Richling had not been weighted down by the constant necessity of corr

urned to the street and resumed their quest, "th

omfortable without t

on, John. We must take che

t, and by littles their

o modest in her account of the rooms she showed, that Mrs. Richling was captivated. The back room on

oubt whether it was quite good enough, "yesseh, I think you be pretty

get them

once? Yes

inflection

at the husband; he nodde

ng against a bedpost and smiling with infant

ly, "oh, no; we can trust

ing countenance, as though she remembered something. "But

palms and smiled, with one

very statue of astonishment, "you sa

Oh, no; nod

I could have mi

lasped her hands across each other under her thr

ou be pritty well. I'm shoe you be verrie well at Madame La Rose. I'm sorry. But you kin pa

. Richling, incensed, had turned her b

m her eye, and, waving her husband to go on without her, she said, "You kin paz yondeh; at Madame La Rose I am shoe you be pritty sick." There

a totally undrained soil came up through the floor. The stairs ascended a few steps, came too near a low ceiling, and shot forward into cavernous gloom to find

erstand or guess their English queries and remarks, hung her head archly when she had to explain away little objections, delivered her No sirs with gravity and her Yes

matters, and when the question of price had to come up it was really difficult to bring it forward, an

floor?" he asked, hover

lovely bow and a wave of the hand toward Mrs. Rich

wife, with a captivated smil

is cheap," he said, as the three stood

dlady f

what we said?" Then, turning to the proprietress, she hu

had not waited fo

scoured and smeared with brick-dust, her ire rising visibly at every heart-th

want somesin tchip?" She threw both elbows to the one side, cast her spread hands off in the same direction, drew the

ey gave her fresh wrath and new opportunity. For her new foe was a woman, and

ed her arms fiercely, and drew herself to her best height; an

pless-is diss'nt pless! I am diss'nt

madam! My

zban'?" poin

the two Richl

f-aside, and, lifting her eyes to the ceili

speration, to find the street again thro

tered his wife's apartment with an air of brisk occup

ueerest, most romantic old thing in the city; the most comfortable-and the

him with sparkling eyes, and throwing herself bef

t seems, even to a

were out in the street, and people were again smiling at the pretty pai

the middle joist overhead hung a great iron lantern. Big double doors at the far end, standing open, flanked with diamond-paned side-lights of colored glass, and with an arch at the same, fan-shaped, above. Beyond these doors and showing through them, a flagged court, bordered all around by a narrow, raised parterre under pomegranate and fruit-laden orange, and over-towered by vine-covered and latticed walls, from whose ragged eaves vagabond weeds laughed down upon the flowers of the parterre below, robbed of late and early suns. Stairs o

s they hurried in, "we'll be hid from the

upward glance of her blue eye

en described to be, and mor

om an excursion around the ceiling, and her whole appearance as fresh as the pink flowers that nestled between her brow and the rim of its precious covering. She smiled as she began her speech, but not enough to spoil what she honestly

un

reath, and was everywhere sinking down into chairs, with her limp, unfortifie

band to wife, and back again

her hand

e. Ten dollah th

me made a beautiful, silent O with h

. Ah-h! impossybl'! By wick,

ide-spread fingers of one hand a

t they heard behind and above them her scornful

d an apartment, cheap, and-mor