.

IN THE WHIRLPOOL OF THE WORLD.
It was already growing dark when a private carriage stopped at the door of a house in Via della Vite in Rome.

Two ladies alighted, and quickly disappeared within the gloomy entrance, while the carriage drove away.
Presently another carriage arrived, deposited two more ladies before the same gloomy door, and in its turn rolled away.

Thus, within a quarter of an hour, five carriages drove up, and no less than twelve female figures were engulfed by the dark portal.

The narrow street then relapsed into its usual quiet.