r her age, but exceedingly pretty; her eyes were
of a dark blue--her hair a rich auburn--her features radiant with the
inexpressible charm of youth and innocence. I have said that her air was
superior to her condition; in truth, every motion of hers had in it a
certain winning grace, and her step was light as a fawn's, although her
figure was not without a certain degree of plumpness, which gave ample
promise of a speedy voluptuous development. Though plumpness in the
female figure is considered to be incompatible with perfect grace, I
agree with those who regard it as decidedly preferable to an excessive
thinness, though the latter be accompanied with the lightness of a
zephyr, and the grace of a sylph.

Dress is sometimes acknowledged to be a sign of character--and the dress
of Fanny Aubrey certainly indicated the native refinement of her
mind--for though poor in material and faded by long use, it was well put
on and scrupulously neat--indeed, there was something almost coquettish
in the style of her bonnet and the arrangement of her scanty shawl--too
scanty, alas! to shield her adequately from the inclemency of the
weather.

As she passed along the street, her beauty and prepossessing appearance
attracted the attention of many gay loiterers, who regard her with
various feelings of admiration, pity and surprise that one so lovely
should pursue so humble an occupation; nor were there wanting many
well-dressed libertines, young and old, who gazed with eyes of lustful
desire upon the fair young creature, evidently so unprotected and so
poor.

Reader, pardon us if for one brief moment we pause to contemplate the
black and hideous character of THE SEDUCER. Should the teeming hosts of
hell's dominions meet in grand convention, amid the mysterious darkness
and lurid flames of their eternal abode--should that infernal conclave
of murderers, robbers, monsters of iniquity, perpetrators of damning
crimes; possessors of black hearts and polluted souls on earth, whose
mighty sins had sunk them in that burning pit--should all those lost
spirits select from among their number, _one fiend_, the worst of them
all, to represent them _all_ on earth--unite within his being _all_ the
crimes of which they had collectively been guilty--to show mankind how
vast and stupendous have been _all_ the sins perpetrated since the
creation of the globe--_that fiend_ could not cast a blacker shadow upon
human nature than doth the seducer of female