cked my brain in vain to recall from
the dreamy past some image that I could identify with the female
before me, who sat in front of my blazing fire and warmed her chilled
limbs with every appearance of the most intense satisfaction.

"Her superior air commanded my involuntary respect. 'Madam,' said I,
'are you hungry?' She eagerly answered in the affirmative; I placed
provisions before her, and she ate with an appetite almost ravenous. I
then gave her some mulled wine, which seemed to revive her greatly;
and she returned me her thanks in a manner so lady-like and refined (a
manner, however, which insensibly partook of a peculiar and indirect
kind of _hauteur_, as remarkable in her tone as in the expression of
her features,) that I was more than ever satisfied that she had
descended to her present wretched situation, certainly from a
respectable, if not from a very superior, order of society.

"'You have benefitted me greatly, sir, and I thank you,' said she,
inclining her head towards me with an air almost condescending. 'I
assure you, you have not bestowed your _assistance_ (she didn't say
_charity_, observe!) upon a habitual mendicant or common person. I am
by birth a lady; you will pardon me for declining to state the causes
of my present condition. Again I thank you.'

"The devil, comrades! here was a starving, freezing beggar woman whom
I had picked out of the street, and warmed and fed, playing the
condescending, reserved lady, forsooth! and abashing and humbling me
by her d----d lofty, proud looks! Ha, ha, ha! and yet I liked it,
mightily; the joke was too good; and so I continued to 'madam' her,
until at last I actually detected her on the very point of calling me
'fellow;' but fortunately for her, she checked herself in time to
escape being turned into the street forthwith.

"And yet the superiority of her air and the haughtiness of her manner
had for me an indescribable charm, no less than her beauty; and I
resolved, if possible, to make her my mistress, for I doubted not that
when she should become nourished and strengthened by proper food and
rest, she would make a very desirable companion for a man of my
amorous temperament. However, I did not broach the subject at that
time, but contented myself with seeing that she was comfortably
provided for that night, under the charge of one of the females of the
house, to whom I gave money wi