'A mere life of fashionable pleasure is a great exhauster of resources.

One tires of this excitement and of that, pushing them aside, as a child does an old or broken toy, to grasp after something new.

It is not surprising, therefore, that mere pleasure-seeking women forget at times the just proprieties of life, and, before they are aware of danger, find themselves in very equivocal positions.

This was simply my case.

Nothing more--nothing less.' "She paused and looked earnestly into my face, to see if I credited this assertion.
"'I have never believed any thing else,' said I.
"A faint, sad smile flitted across her wan face.
"'The consequences of this error on my part,' she went on, 'threaten to be of the most disastrous kind.