thermore, survived several stately calls, and at last sallied forth for my purchases and the boat, safe in my husband's escort.

I had with me only my travelling-bag; for it had seemed unnecessary on the previous night to bring all our luggage up to the hotel, — big trunk, little trunk, bandbox, and bundle. Do not, I beg you, imagine that all the contents of the chests and portmanteaus were vanities of mine; indeed, lace and linen, bonnet and bernouse, filled one little trunk alone; the rest belonged to Charlie, every inch of them. And what was there in them? Why, - newspapers. I knew you would not believe me, yet I assure you again that their contents were nothing but newspapers. All the way from Omaha, from St. Louis, from Chicago, from Cincinnati, from Baltimore, nothing but newspapers; after every stay in every town a new trunk appeared, and in its recesses were filed away the invaluable newspapers, - Chicago Tomahawks, and La Crosse What-is-its, and Baltimore ButcherBlades, and Congressional Chesterfields, the contemporary records of the time, Charlie said, which no student of history could spare. These, accordingly, were left in the baggage-room at the station, in one of those spasms of economy that always prove more expensive in the end, and now they were to be expressed across the city to the boat, and there was very little time to do it. "We never can have any peace about your shopping with such a weight on our minds as all that luggage," said Charlie. "I think that had best be attended to first."

Not at all," I answered, not feeling the possible loss of the trunks to be complete ruin; for if we once go down there we never shall come back, and there are all our presents to buy."

"Well, then, you had best do the buying, my love, and I will do the luggage." Me?" I exclaimed, in a consterna

tion.

"Yes. Why not?"

"But you know I always make somebody buy for me. I can't beat the

creatures down; and they clap on the pinnacle of prices the moment they lay eyes on my face."

"Well, — it will be a good lesson to you. Early exercises in bargains. I don't see anything else to be done.” "But what?"

"But for me to take a stage down to the station, it is an hour's ride, and for you to saunter down Broadway.” "What without you?"

"Why, certainly; they don't murder in open daylight on Broadway." "But I don't know my way." "You won't have to find your way. You have only to keep straight on. Do be strong-minded for once. Make your purchases, and wait for me at the

"O no indeed, I don't know where it is, I never should find it, — I had rather not! O no indeed, I will wait for you on the corner opposite City Hall Park. I will certainly wait there."

"Very well. I will find you there. Don't be afraid now. Give me your travelling-bag, I will lock it up in the state-room."

"Will it be safe there? It has all my precious manuscript in it,” — alas, I am literary!"absolutely promised for next week, and if it is lost I shall be undone."

"Pshaw! Perfectly safe; it is n't sensational enough to explode the steamboat at the wharf, is it? Want any money?" And then Mr. Charlie put his hand in his pocket, and drew it out as if he had burned it, the place was

empty! His pocket-book apparently had been afraid it should be left behind, and had taken French leave.

Charlie always receives the inevitable with a good grace. "I have been robbed," said he. "About as bad a predicament I must make haste and leave word at the Central Police Office, or whatever they call it here. Don't know as it is of any use, all thieves together. However, we must spring round now, for we've no money to stay another night in the city. That's a - pretty scrape, with two dividends waiting for us at home."

"Can't you borrow?"

"Don't know a soul in New York. No matter; our passage is paid, and I've change enough in my waistcoat pocket for the stages."

"But you can have this back." "O no! The presents must be bought; we go straight through, and don't see another store, as you may say, after we leave Broadway, and the girls will expect them, of course. Good by, straight ahead, saunter slowly, and wait at the corner opposite City Hall Park."

66

City Hall Park," said I. And he seized my bag, hailed a stage, and was out of sight.

Protected by my husband, how brave and strong I had felt, defying the great whirlpool of the metropolis and all its terrors! but now suddenly I shrunk up into myself like a sea-anemone; and all the careless crowd, brushing by me, gave me a sensation as if I were being pricked by so many bristles.

This was Broadway then! There would be temptations; things in the windows! Now I would not be a fool, but would show myself fit to live in the world. And in that spirit I threw up my veil, adjusted my eye-glasses satisfactorily, alas, I am nearsighted!and commenced my sauntering.

My purse was firmly grasped, I never trust my purse out of my hands,

the splendid windows to come into sight. Somebody had told me if I wanted to get cheap things to go to Sixth Avenue; but that had been out of the question on account of the want of time, and, if the things were dearer on Broadway, they were probably all the prettier. But either my glasses were poor or this was not Broadway, for the ideally lovely things that I expected failed to present themselves. Nevertheless, I continued my ramble, trusting to rumor, and not venturing inside any doors because fancying that I should certainly see the desired display behind glass a little farther down town.

All at once a mass of granite and scaffolding across the way began to loom into view; a sort of spire beyond; an iron railing and ballads hanging over it, the new Post Office probably, that I had read was in process of erection, Great Heavens, this was City Hall Park!

To this day I do not know whether Broadway goes any farther, that was and is the end of it to me. I dared not stir a step beyond; and here I was at the end of my tether, and not a present bought, and there were all those gaping girls at home, each expecting, without doubt, some lovely memento of my journey, which I also desired that they should have. There was a glittering window at my right hand now; it belonged to a jewelry establishment; in desperation I plunged within, — and lighted on a locket.

"Forty-five dollars."

Goodness! And I had but thirty. "This one?" "Forty."

sumed. It grew upon me like a fungus, as I looked at the case, and nothing else would catch my eye, that I must have that locket, - it was such a beauty, such beaten, burnished, golden gold; such chasing and enamelling, such a charming initial in tiny diamonds, which was the very thing. I already saw it hanging on Eleanor's white throat, no toilet could be complete without it. What was the very lowest-vox hæsit, but I overcame at which either of the first two could be had? The young man hardly knew again,-looked at me, - at the lockets. Which did I wish to purchase? he would like to know.

I should like to purchase this one; but I could by no means give forty-five dollars. Still he did n't know. Could n't he find out? Would he inquire if there could be any abatement in the price, as I was in a hurry? With that he summoned a messenger, and despatched him and the locket to the cavernous back part of the store; and, in the absence of the cynosure, a great gray gentleman in gold spectacles, who seemed to be made of lockets, and who, as I heard another customer remark, "bossed round promiscuous," inquired, in a sweetly paternal way, if I were finding the article that I desired. I gave him to understand that the article was all right as soon as the price was, and by that time the locket had returned, the great gray gentleman had covered successfully the dialogue between my dapper young man and his messenger, and the young man politely requested to know how much I would be willing to pay.

It was certainly not my business to fix prices, so I summoned all my courage, and said I should be willing to pay as little as possible. And then, as he still seemed desirous that I should name my figure, I put a bold face on the matter, and said twenty-five dollars.

The young man made a movement to replace it in the case, but paused halfway. That is not to be thought of," said he, rapidly. "I could n't listen to such a proposition; it really cost us nearly twice that; we are selling at

a discount as it is. I should be glad to accommodate you, but, indeed, we might as well give it away.”

"Very well," I remarked, finding the beating down business not so tremendous after all. "But you are willing to take something less apparently. Please say what, for I am in a hurry, as I said."

"If you take it at forty dollars we shall lose — "

"Then I will not be the means of your losing. I cannot give forty for it," and I began to give it up.

"But indeed, madam, it is cheap at that," said he, glibly; "eighteen carat gold, Viennese workmanship, and the diamonds real. If you can find any at a less price in the city, we shall be glad to get them ourselves."

"A friend of mine had one much like this," I said, in a last effort, "and gave but twenty-five dollars for it. I don't think this is worth any more, but I am in haste, and will give you thirty."

"Will you have it in a box?" said he. "No; I will take it here in my purse," I answered mechanically, in astonishment; and before I recovered from my amazement and self-congratulation the money was paid, the locket was in my purse, and I in the street.

No miser, no discoverer, ever felt better pleased; but meanwhile the locket was the only thing in my purse except a card, and Alice's, Maud's, Susie's, and Georgie's presents had vanished into thin air.

In the street once again, I felt better than I had felt before; my skirmish with the shopman had rather inspirited me; indignation at the forty-five dollars demanded, and desire of the locket, and finally pleasure over the victory, had put my shyness momentarily out of sight, and I found it quite possible to ask an apple-woman if this was City Hall Park, to make certain.

"Faix an' it was," she assured me, – "what there was left of it."

I looked along the length of the crowded street before me, penetrating it well as eye-glasses would, but no Charlie rewarded my gaze; however,

he must be there presently, and I could wait; so I waited, a quarter, a half hour, and still no Charlie. And then it rushed over me that perhaps he had already been there before me, had grown tired, in his masculine impatience, and had begun sauntering up to meet me. In that case we should never meet, unless I took to sauntering again in my own precisely opposite direction, and we both lived long enough to turn up in China. I stood there bewildered, in a perplexity out of which the only thing that became clear was an anathematizing of the locket; and then I began to bethink me if this were the right corner or not, for I saw that there were half a dozen corners that might all claim to be opposite City Hall Park; but this seemed to be the last, and I thought it safest to assume that it was the appointed one.

I waited there till I knew exactly how my own little pony felt when she had stood three days in her stall, and still no Charlie. There was a bitter wind blowing, the sky was overcast, all the world was hurrying by, and still no Charlie. Had he really passed the store I was in, and gone up the street to find me? Had I best turn about and follow? or would he go all the way to the Fifth Avenue again, and then retrace his steps till he found me? It always made him ill to walk, and made me ill to stand; we should be in a nice condition to continue our journey that night. Nevertheless, there was no safety in deserting my post, then I should never find him. All I could do was to remain where I was; and so I waited, — long enough for him to have gone up to the Fifth Avenue and back half a dozen times, and still no signs of him. What did it mean? I then began to ask myself. Something must have happened, what could it be? He must really be in some great trouble to leave me so; he never would in the world if he could help it; and I could not go to him. I was getting worried beyond expression, and so tired that I would have given the locket itself for a seat.

Meanwhile the crowd was still surging up and down, jostling and pushing, hastening and lingering, old and young, little and great, men and women, and every one had an eye to spare, it seemed, for me. Suddenly I remembered the New York Herald, and the first left-hand corner of it. It was only the day before that, unfolding it in the cars, I said, laughingly, to my husband, "Let me see if anybody has answered my Personal yet," and he had replied in disgust, "Don't speak of the things!" Now, if there is anything on which I pride myself, it is my stanch respectability, a word and a thing dear to my heart of hearts; if I am nobody myself, there are my ancestors! And it is not difficult to realize how my sense of possession staggered as I began to feel that every soul that saw me knew I had been standing there a long hour and a half waiting for a gentleman; each glance that each new passer gave seemed to be more curious than the last. I put down my veil in self-defence, but threw it up again in fear, lest I should miss seeing Charlie, or his eye should fail to catch sight of me by reason of its obstruction; I grew mortally sure that every man that passed me took me for one of the miserable women of the Personals. I was faint with the idea; moreover, my back ached so with standing, that I was faint in reality. What else could they think of this despairing-looking woman in black, with the limp white lace scarf and the draggled curls, -alas, my hair curls! Is it not Thackeray who says every woman with a nez retroussé dresses her hair in curls to make herself as much as may be resemble a King Charles spaniel? and already in the raw east wind I knew my nose was as pink as a poodle's and as cold as a healthy puppy's, horrible comparisons! Or, if they did not think that, but they did, I knew they did,—they must think that I was set there to perform some public penance; and what dreadful sin must they think I had committed to deserve such a penance as this!

A little flower-girl came along with

-

her last bouquet, and saluted me with her petition and her poverty, begging me to buy the flowers that she might go home, they were fuchsias and Parma violets, and one bursting rose, they would have been a real consolation to me. I had some loose coppers in my pocket, but I dared not spend them, lest I might want them in the night for a roll; so the child went her way, and I could not find it in my heart to pity her, she was so much better off than I; she had a home to go to. The tears began to well slowly into my eyes; they only added to my distress, as I was conscious how they increased my forlorn appearance. I blushed and tingled with fresh access of mortification; I saw my dear respectability becoming small by degrees and beautifully less. If I had really been keeping an improper appointment, I could not have endured the agony of that long hour. The little urchins, who tossed down their pennies, and took dirty slices of swimming pineapple from the candystand behind the lamp-post at my side, hit me right and left with insulting impunity. I would have given almost the whole creation, had it been mine to give, to dare to lean against that lamppost. Meanwhile a burly policeman eyed me, and I expected momentarily that he would tell me to move on,and where in the world was I to move to? The sense of irretrievable disgrace was fastening upon me with fearfal fangs, still no Charlie.

When one's circumstances become a matter of breathless importance to one's self, it is the most natural thing to believe them of equal importance to everybody else. I was sure that the great gray gentleman in gold spectacles, and the dapper young man, who could plainly see me from their window, must wonder where my haste and hurry had gone. I looked across the street, and down the side street, and then this way and that, in the intricacies of the moving throng of the pavement, far, far off, what was the appalling sight I saw? An umbrella! Ah, was it really raining down there? or was it some

rain, real downright rain, no shower, but the regular beginning of a three days' easterly storm. What was I to do, where was I to go? I dared not take refuge in a shop,- for would Charlie be able to go into all the shops of Broadway to look for his wife? would it even occur to him at all? and was there any possibility of his hitting upon the right one, and would they not all be closed before he could make the tour of half their number? Down plunged the rain; I should certainly be arrested presently for an insane vagrant. I went and stood under an awning; the man came out and took the awning down. Then I was in despair. Where, where, where should I go?

At this crisis of my affairs I recollected that something had been said about Delmonico's. If I found the place, if I went there, would Charlie ever remember it? he was such a forgetful fellow; he never would, I was morally sure, but it was the only thing there was left for me to do. I summoned my courage, she could but refuse, and ran to my apple-woman, and asked her if a gentleman with gray