F. Colburn (Francis Colburn) Adams
Chapter 62
present the accessories to wrong doing? Does it not show that the
wrong-doer and the criminally inclined, too often receive
encouragement by the example of those whose duty it is to protect
society? The spread of crime, alas! for the profession, is too often
regarded by the lawyer as rather a desirable means of increasing his
trade.
Quadrille follows quadrille, the waltz succeeds the schottish, the
scene presents one bewildering maze of flaunting gossamers and
girating bodies, now floating sylph-like into the foreground, then
whirling seductively into the shadowy vista, where the joyous laugh
dies out in the din of voices. The excitement has seized upon the
head and heart of the young,--the child who stood trembling between
the first and second downward step finds her reeling brain a captive
in this snare set to seal her ruin.
Now the music ceases, the lusty-tongued call-master stands surveying
what he is pleased to call the oriental splendor of this grotesque
assembly. He doesn't know who wouldn't patronize such a house! It
suddenly forms in platoon, and marshalled by slightly-colored
masters of ceremony, promenades in an oblong figure.
Here, leaning modestly on the arm of a tall figure in military
uniform, and advancing slowly up the hall, is a girl of some sixteen
summers. Her finely-rounded form is in harmony with the ravishing
vivacity of her face, which is beautifully oval. Seen by the glaring
gaslight her complexion is singularly clear and pale. But that
freshness which had gained her many an admirer, and which gave such
a charm to the roundness of early youth, we look for in vain. And
yet there is a softness and delicacy about her well-cut and
womanly features-a child-like sweetness in her smile-a glow of
thoughtfulness in those great, flashing black eyes-an expression of
melancholy in which at short intervals we read her thoughts-an
incessant playing of those long dark eyelashes, that clothes her
charms with an irresistible, a soul-inspiring seductiveness. Her
dress, of moire antique, is chasteness itself; her bust exquisite