ined within her own breast the secret of her
ruin, until nature was about, in its own mysterious way, to proclaim her
shame itself. As soon as Raub became aware of the fact that Marie was
about to become a mother, he absconded from New Orleans, and instead of
carrying out his repeated promises to the injured and ruined fair one,
he came on to New York, leaving her unconscious and ignorant of his
whereabout.

Marie, with that pertinacity which belongs peculiarly to a wronged and
neglected woman, tracked him to this city, and demanded of him here the
only atonement he could make before man and before God,
namely--marriage. To all these entreaties Raub turned a deaf and defiant
ear, and, at the suggestion of the French Consulate in this city, Marie
retained the services of Howe & Hummel, and proceedings were taken which
brought the contumacious Theodore to a satisfactory fiscal arrangement
so far as Miss Blanchette was concerned.

*Life on the Boston Boats.*

A FAST WOMAN WRONGFULLY ACCUSED.

Maria Wilson is a beautiful woman, and of that age at which most women
are admired by men. She is courteous, affable and lady-like in her
manner. So far as appearances go, she is just such a woman as most men
would like to have for a wife. But appearances often deceive. Maria has
fallen from grace, just as mother Eve did before her.

Her beauty has perhaps to her been her greatest misfortune; without it
she might be virtuous; with it she certainly is not. Like many others of
her erring sisters, see desires to live like a lady; to dress well; go
to the opera in season; go to the theater and, indeed, to every other
place where woman is likely to go.

Unfortunately for Miss Wilson, though born pretty, she was not born
rich. The good things of this world were not given to her very
abundantly. Work, she wouldn't. For some reason or other, certainly not
a valid one, work appears degrading to some people. So it appeared to
Miss Wilson.

What was she to do then? To steal would be to go to the penitentiary or
the State prison. She didn't like to live in either, and yet she had
taken the first erring step to go there. She is, in short, a fast woman,
yet driven to a gay life in order to eke out a precarious existence, to
gratify her love of dress. Fearing that she might get into the hands of
the police if she staid in the city, Maria engages a passage on one of
the Boston boats every alternate day, for the purpose of affording
"noctur