the white trousers and big straw hats of the policemen,
the tripping gait of the modish young persons on the pavement,
the general brightness, newness, juvenility, both of people
and things. The young men had exchanged few observations;
but in crossing Union Square, in front of the monument to Washington--
in the very shadow, indeed, projected by the image of the pater patriae>--one of them remarked to the other, "It seems
a rum-looking place."

"Ah, very odd, very odd," said the other, who was the clever
man of the two.

"Pity it's so beastly hot," resumed the first speaker after a pause.

"You know we are in a low latitude," said his friend.

"I daresay," remarked the other.

"I wonder," said the second speaker presently, "if they can give
one a bath?"

"I daresay not," rejoined the other.

"Oh, I say!" cried his comrade.

This animated discussion was checked by their arrival at the hotel,
which had been recommended to them by an American gentleman whose acquaintance
they made--with whom, indeed, they became very intimate--on the steamer,
and who had proposed to accompany them to the inn and introduce them,
in a friendly way, to the proprietor. This plan, however, had been