d or evil, but as I grow older I am
certain that we act always for the one or for the other.'

"Under these conditions, in the home of such a sweet and tolerant woman,
all the throbbing joy of life and youth awoke again within me. Cut off
from the old scenes and companions, I entered upon a new existence. I
made many friends with the young people in the neighbourhood, and for
the first time felt free and without the opposition of anybody. I had
not written my mother or in any way let her know where I was, and no
disturbing word came from my past. I sang all day at my work, and in
the evening I joined my new companions and together we roamed and
frolicked to our hearts' content. I had many young men friends and could
satisfy my desire to be in their society, talk to, dance with them,
without arousing evil thoughts in others or, consequently, in ourselves.

"Under these happy influences I grew healthier and more wholesome in
every way. People began to say I was pretty, and indeed I did grow to be
very good-looking. My figure had reached its fullest development and the
rosy bloom of youth and of health was in my cheeks. I was strong and
vigorous, self-reliant and independent, and very happy. I became quite a
favourite and the recognised leader in the mischievous frolics of the
young people. Hardly an evening passed that did not bring a scene of
gaiety. It seemed to me that I had never lived before and that I was
making up for all the pleasures I had not known. There was, indeed,
something heartless and cruel in my happiness, for I never once wrote to
my mother, selfishly fearing to have my present joy disturbed.

"My fears had good reason, too, it seems, for I had lived in those
pleasant surroundings only a few months when one evening, while I was
enjoying myself at a moon-light picnic, I was approached by a sober,
stern-looking man who drew me away from my friends and asked me my name.
When I had told him, he showed me a newspaper clipping of an article
with the head-lines, 'Mysterious Disappearance of a Young Girl.' For
some moments I stood as if turned to stone, gazing stupidly at the
paper. Then troubled thoughts took possession of me. 'What shall I do?
What will become of me?' I remembered my mother so often saying that if
I ran away I would be put in the House of Correction. At this thought I
shuddered and exclaimed aloud, 'No, no.' The man had been watching me
closely and he asked: 'Is it true,' pointing to the art