the proprietors of the handsome residences which
surround them, and filled with rare shrubs, flowers, beautiful fountains
and costly statuary; the vast _parterres_ of flowers in the suburbs,
sending in upon every summer wind an Arabian wealth of exquisite
fragrance; the large summer gardens, where beer and Gambrinus reign
supreme; the enticing promenades, and the splendid drives in every
direction from the city--would give any one not completely at war with
every pleasant thing in life a genuine inspiration of pleasure and a
more than ordinary thrill of enjoyment.

It is little wonder, then, that Mrs. Winslow found Rochester a
profitable field for operating in her peculiar double capacity of a
dashing adventuress and a trance medium. She found there not only men of
vast wealth, but of vast immorality, as is quite common all over the
world, and hundreds of firm believers in spiritualism, which was a
special peculiarity to Rochester. Among the first number there were many
who sought her for her charms of figure and manners, which were
certainly powerfully attractive, and which yielded her an elegant income
without positive public degradation, as no man of wealth and position
feels called upon to make known his own peccadilloes for the sake of
exposing the sharer of them, even though she be a dangerous woman; and
consequently there was only that universal verdict of evil against her
which society quite generally, and also quite correctly, pronounces on
forcibly circumstantial evidence.

Her apartments were elegant, and even sumptuous; and though there was a
quite general understanding of her character among the epicurean
gentlemen of the city, she held them aloof with such freezing dignity
that they seldom presumed upon her acquaintance, and were even possessed
of a certain respect for her unusually rare shrewdness in preserving her
reputation, such as it was; so that her rooms, so far as the public were
able to ascertain, were only frequented by those who believed her to be
able to allay their sufferings, or open the gates of the undiscovered
country to their anxious, yearning eyes.

A large amount of money had been paid her by Lyon to prevent a scandal.
The last sum was known to have been five thousand dollars, and it was
quite probable that if there had been an intimacy so ripe as to have
warranted the payment of this amount, still larger sums had doubtless
been expended in maturing so tender a relation. In any event