That the rumour of Fanny's beauty and virtue should not have spread through the town was too much to expect.

There are always a number of unoccupied young gentlemen about, whose sole mission in life seems to be to make such discoveries, and the number of these pleasure-hunters was considerably increased on the occasion of the assembling of the Diet at Pressburg, when many of our younger conscript fathers spread the report of newly found female virtue as far as possible.

Who did not know of the Meyer girls in those days ?--and those who did, could not help knowing likewise that there was a fifth sister.

Now, where was this last little sister hiding?
Why, it was the most natural question in the world.
The girls themselves made no mystery of the matter.

They explained with whom Fanny was, and where and when she might be seen.