llery and guano. Altogether his story was of
the Brobdingnagian type.

The case, however, never came to trial, the friends of both parties to
the action suggesting an amicable settlement of their differences, which
being adjusted to everyone's satisfaction, the Baron went his way,
lecturing on "Love," a theme on which he was most conversant, and the
fair Helene spent her time flitting between this city and gay Paris, in
both of which cities she is thoroughly at home. And so the somewhat
famous episode ended, so far as the office of Howe and Hummel was
concerned.

CHAPTER XII.

THE DEMI-MONDE.

Reader, did you ever try to estimate the malign influence upon society
of one single fallen woman? Did you ever endeavor to calculate the evils
of such a leaven stealthily disseminating its influence in a community?
Woman, courted, flattered, fondled, tempted and deceived, becomes in
turn the terrible Nemesis--the insatiate Avenger of her sex! Armed with
a power which is all but irresistible, and stripped of that which alone
can retain and purify her influence, she steps upon the arena of life
ready to act her part in the demoralization of society. As some one has
remarked, "the _lex talionis_--the law of retaliation--is hers. Society
has made her what she is, and must now be governed by her potent
influence." Surely the weight of this influence baffles computation!
View it in shattered domestic ties, in the sacrifice of family peace, in
the cold desolation of once happy homes! See the eldest son and hope of
a proud family, educated in an atmosphere of virtue and principle, who
has given promise of high and noble qualities. He falls a victim to the
fashionable vice, and carries back to his hitherto untainted home the
lethal influence he has imbibed. Another and another, within the range
of that influence, suffers for his lapse from moral rectitude, and they
in turn become the agents and disseminators of fresh evils.

This promiscuous association is tacitly regarded as a necessary evil,
the suppression of which would produce alarming and disastrous effects
upon the community at large. The passions, indolence, and the love of
dress and display are the main agents in producing the class of women we
have under consideration. It is a vulgar error and a popular delusion,
that the life of a fallen woman is as revolting to herself as it appears
to the moralist and philanthropist. Authors of vivid imagination love to
portray the