atrocious monster that pollutes Jove's pure air by his breath!"

"Bidding," he exclaimed, starting back in horror, "Catiline's bidding?"

"My father's," answered the miserable girl. "My own father's bidding!"

"Ye gods! ye gods! His own daughter's purity!"

"Purity!" she replied, with a smile of sad bitter irony. "Do you think
purity could long exist in the same house with Catiline and Orestilla?
Paullus Arvina, the scenes I have beheld, the orgies I have shared, the
atmosphere of voluptuous sin I have breathed, almost from my cradle, had
changed the cold heart of the virgin huntress into the fiery pulses of the
wanton Venus! Since I was ten years old, I have been, wo is me! familiar
with all luxury, all infamy, all degradation!"

"Great Nemesis!" he cried, turning up his indignant eyes toward heaven.
"But, in the name of all the Gods! wherefore, wherefore? Even to the
worst, the most debased of wretches, their children's honor is still
dear."

"Nothing is dear to Catiline but riot, and debauchery, and murder! Sin,
for its own sake, even more than for the rewards its offers to its
votaries! Paullus, men called me beautiful! But what cared I for beauty,
that charmed all but him, whom alone I desired to fascinate? Men called me
beautiful, I say! and in my father's sight that beauty became precious,
when he foresaw that it might prove a means of winning followers to his
accursed cause! Then was I educated in all arts, all graces, all
accomplishments that might enhance my charms; and, as those fatal charms
could avail him nothing, so long as purity remained or virtue, I was
taught, ah! too easily! to esteem pleasure the sole good, passion the only
guide! Taught thus, by my own parents! Curses, curses, and shame upon
them! Pity me, pity me, Paullus. Oh! you are bound to pity me! for had I
not loved you, fatally, desperately loved, and known that I could not win
you, perchance--perchance I had not fallen. Oh! pity me, and pardon----"

"Pardon you, Lucia," he interrupted her. "What have you done to me, or who
am I, that you should crave my pardon?"

"What have I done? Do you ask in mockery? Have not I made you the partaker
of my sin? Have not I lured you into falsehood, momentary falsehood it is
true, yet still falsehood, to your Julia? Have I not tangled you in the
nets of this most foul conspiracy? Betrayed you, a bound slave, to the
monster--the soul-destroyer?"

Arvina groaned aloud, but made no answer, so deeply