in consequence of his rise in office, has taken
an apartment somewhat lower down than number "forty-'leven," as he
facetiously called his attic. Whether there is any truth, or not, in the
story of his attachment to, and favorable reception by, the daughter of
the head of an extensive wholesale grocer's establishment, I will not
venture an opinion; I may say, however, that I have met him repeatedly
in company with a very well-nourished and high-colored young lady, who,
I understand, is the daughter of the house in question.

Some of the boarders were of opinion that Iris did not return the
undisguised attentions of the handsome young Marylander. Instead of
fixing her eyes steadily on him, as she used to look upon the Little
Gentleman, she would turn them away, as if to avoid his own. They often
went to church together, it is true; but nobody, of course, supposes
there is any relation between religious sympathy and those wretched
"sentimental" movements of the human heart upon which it is commonly
agreed that nothing better is based than society, civilization,
friendship, the relation of husband and wife, and of parent and child,
and which many people must think were singularly overrated by the
Teacher of Nazareth, whose whole life, as I said before, was full of
sentiment, loving this or that young man, pardoning this or that sinner,
weeping over the dead, mourning for the doomed city, blessing, and
perhaps kissing, the little children, so that the Gospels are still
cried over almost as often as the last work of fiction!

But one fine June morning there rumbled up to the door of our
boarding-house a hack containing a lady inside and a trunk on the
outside. It was our friend the lady-patroness of Miss Iris, the same who
had been called by her admiring pastor "The Model of all the Virtues."
Once a week she had written a letter, in a rather formal hand, but full
of good advice, to her young charge. And now she had come to carry her
away, thinking that she had learned all she was likely to learn
under her present course of teaching. The Model, however, was to stay
awhile,--a week, or more,--before they should leave together.

Iris was obedient, as she was bound to be. She was respectful, grateful,
as a child is with a just, but not tender parent. Yet something was
wrong. She had one of her trances, and became statue-like, as before,
only the day after the Model's arrival. She was wan and silent, tasted
nothing at table, sm