would
interfere with them; the novelty of their condition, assuming each
day some new attractions; the curiosity innate in the feminine breast
to hear and see things outside her own circle; above all the
hallucinations flung on the path of disguise by the fiend of evil,
who thus intrigued for the final ruin of his unsuspecting victims,
made them agree mutually to pass a short time in travelling around as
naval cadets; then, tired and surfeited with their triumph over nature,
they hoped to retire into the sphere of utility destined for them by
Providence.

But, to our own and to our readers' regret, we must pause in our
biography. The sources from which we cull these interesting details
have cast historic silence over our heroines' ramblings of three years.
What a volume of sensation they suggest! Were we given to the doubtful
utility of fictional biography, were we weak enough to enrich ourselves
by pandering to the morbid and often depraved longings of modern
literary taste, we might fill a couple of volumes with scenes of
excitement, of "hair-breadth 'scapes," and with heart-palpitating
suspenses of misplaced love. We could not draw a picture more
interesting or strange than those two sweet maidens in their disguise.
We see them in the salons of the wealthy, in the clubs of the
politicians, and at the billiard-tables of giddy youth who little dream
of the intrusion, which, if they understood, would make them more happy.
We fancy we see those youths, so polished, so gay, and withal so
handsome, the idols of the society they move in; we hear compliments
about those delicate hands, those small feet, those charming eyes.
Our sympathy would chronicle the end fate of many an unsuspecting
maiden who loved and pined in the dream of secret love towards the
young officers that had crossed their path, whilst they revelled in
cruel delight in their triumph over their own frail, tender-hearted
sex. Our tale might unravel the plottings of hopeful mothers who
vainly plied the utmost worldly ingenuity to gain for their daughters
already passed the meridian of youth such promising and charming
husbands. What skill it would demand to describe the chagrin of those
old and young ladies, if they discovered the fraud which so heartlessly
trifled with the sacred feeling of love!

We will not tarry over imaginary incidents whilst terrible and
thrilling scenes are before us. The record of those extraordinary
maidens is only now comm