F. Colburn (Francis Colburn) Adams
Chapter 54
whole assembly into a fainting fit, and caused such a fluttering in
the camp of fashion. Reader! you may rest assured back-doors and
smelling-bottles were in great demand.
The Baronet had introduced her as his cousin; just arrived, he said,
in the care of her father-the cousin whose beauty he had so often
referred to. So complete was her toilet and disguise, that none but
the most intimate associate could have detected the fraud. Do you
ask us who was the betrayer, reader? We answer,--
One whose highest ambition did seem that of getting her from her
paramour, George Mullholland. It was Judge Sleepyhorn. Reader! you
will remember him-the venerable, snowy-haired man, sitting on the
lounge at the house of Madame Flamingo, and on whom George
Mullholland swore to have revenge. The judge of a criminal court,
the admonisher of the erring, the sentencer of felons, the habitue
of the house of Madame Flamingo-no libertine in disguise could be
more scrupulous of his standing in society, or so sensitive of the
opinion held of him by the virtuous fair, than was this daylight
guardian of public morals.
The Baronet got himself nicely out of the affair, and Mr. Soloman
Snivel, commonly called Mr. Soloman, the accommodation man, is at
the house of Madame Flamingo, endeavoring to effect a reconciliation
between the Judge and George Mullholland.
CHAPTER VII.
IN WHICH IS SEEN A COMMINGLING OF CITIZENS.
NIGHT has thrown her mantle over the city. There is a great
gathering of denizens at the house of Madame Flamingo. She has a
bal-masque to-night. Her door is beset with richly-caparisoned
equipages. The town is on tip-toe to be there; we reluctantly follow
it. An hundred gaudily-decorated drinking saloon are filled with
gaudier-dressed men. In loudest accent rings the question--"Do you go
to Madame Flamingo's to-night?" Gentlemen of the genteel world, in
shining broadcloth, touch glasses and answer--"yes!" It is a
wonderful city-this of ours. Vice knows no restraint, poverty hath
no friends here. We bow before the shrine of midnight revelry; we