ng or somebody better than themselves; and under
such circumstances, naturally enough, Miss Alice Somebody--though a
pretty girl--talented, as the world goes, highly educated, too, as many
hundreds beside her, was still a spinster at twenty-three. The fact was,
Mrs. Somebody was a woman of experience in the world--indeed, a dozen
years' experience in life at Washington, had given her very definite
ideas of expediency and diplomacy; and hence, as the means were cut off
to live in their usual style and expensiveness--Mrs. Somebody packed up
and retired to Baltimore. The son soon found an occupation in a
store--the daughter, being a woman of taste and education, resorted
to--as a matter of _diversion_--they could not think of earning a
living, of course!--the needle--while Mrs. Somebody arranged a pair of
neat apartments, for two "gentlemen of unexceptionable reference," as
boarders.

During their palmy days at the capital of the nation, Miss Alice
Somebody came in contact with a young gentleman named Rhapsody,--of
pleasant and respectable demeanor, _an office-holder_, but not high up
enough to suit the tastes and aims of Colonel Somebody and his lady; and
so, our friend Rhapsody stood little or no chance for favor or
preferment in the graces of Miss Alice, though he was a recognized
visitor at the Colonel's house, and essayed to make an impression upon
the heart's affections of the Colonel's daughter.

Time fled, and with its fleetings came those changes in the fates and
fortunes of the Somebodies, we have noted. Nor was our friend Rhapsody
without his changes,--mutations of fortune, a change of government, made
changes. Rhapsody one morning was not as much surprised as mortified to
find his "services no longer required," as a new hand was awaiting his
withdrawal. Rhapsody, true to custom at the capital--lived up to and
ahead of his salary; and, when deposed, deemed it prudent to make his
exit from a spot no longer likely to be favorable to the self-respect or
personal comfort of a man bereft of power, and without patronage or
position. Rhapsody, by trade (luckily he had a trade), was a boot-maker.
Start not, reader, at the idea; we know "shoemaker" may have a tendency
to shock some people, whose moral and mental culture has been sadly
neglected, or quite perverted; but Rhapsody was but a boot-maker, and no
doubt quite as gentlemanly--physically and mentally considered, as the
many thousands who merely _wear_ boots, for