Dan and the ship's surgeon and I had been up to the great square, listening to the music of the fine military bands and contemplating English and Spanish female loveliness and fashion, and at nine o'clock were on our way to the theater, when we met the General, the Judge, the Commodore, the Colonel, and the Commissioner of the United States of America to Europe, Asia, and Africa, who had been to the Club House to register their several titles and impoverish the bill of fare; and they told us to go over to the little variety store near the Hall of Justice and buy some kid gloves.

They said they were elegant and very moderate in price.

It seemed a stylish thing to go to the theater in kid gloves, and we acted upon the hint.

A very handsome young lady in the store offered me a pair of blue gloves.

I did not want blue, but she said they would look very pretty on a hand like mine.