eagle eyes of all the party upon him! Cut off
from retreat, he boldly faced the enemy!

He was going to a political caucus meeting in a noisy and turbulent
ward--apprehended a disturbance--donned those shady habiliments, and the
large green bag in his hand, that a--well, though it did not seem to
contain such goods, was supposed, for the nonce, to contain his books
and papers; documents he was likely to have use for at the caucus!
Rhapsody got through--it was a tight shave; he dexterously declined
accompanying the ladies home--they were rather queerly attired
themselves, it occurred to Rhapsody; they made some excuse for their
appearance, and so the maskers _quit, even_. Time passed on--Alice and
Rhapsody had almost climaxed the preparatory negotiations of an hymenial
conclusion, when another _contretemps_ came to pass--it was the grand
finale.

It was on a rather blustery night, that Rhapsody, in haste, sought the
shop of his employer; he had work in hand which, being ordered done at a
certain hour, for an anxious customer, he was in haste to deliver. His
green bag under his arm, in rushed Rhapsody,--the servant of the
customer was awaiting the arrival of the _bottier_ and his master's
boots. The shopman eagerly seized Rhapsody's verdant-colored satchel,
and out came the boots, and which underwent many critical inspections,
eliciting sundry professional remarks from the shopman, to our hero,
Rhapsody, who, in his business matters had assumed, it appeared, the
more humble name of _Mr. Jones_, in the shop. The customer's servant
stood by the counter--fencing off a lady, further on--from immediate
notice of Rhapsody. A side glance revealed sundry patterns or specimens
of most elegantly-wrought slippers--the boss of the shop, and the lady,
were apparently negotiating a trade, in these embroidered articles; the
lady, now but a few feet from Rhapsody and the garrulous shopman, turned
toward the poor fellow just as the shopman had stuffed more work into
the green bag--their eyes met. Rhapsody felt an all-overish sensation
peculiar to that experienced by an amateur in a shower bath, during his
first _douse_, or the incipient criminal detected in his initiatory
crime! Poor Rhapsody felt like fainting, while Miss Alice Somebody,
without the nerve to gather up her work, or withstand a further test of
the force of circumstances, precipitately left the store, her face red
as scarlet, and her demeanor wild and incomprehensible, at