stop for a few days. In the course of his wandering about the town, his
attention had been attracted to a decent house, where lodgings were to
be let, by the sight of a very pretty girl sitting at work at the parlor
window. He was so struck by her face that he came back twice to look
at it, determining, the second time, to try if he could not make
acquaintance with her by asking to see the lodgings. He was shown the
rooms by the girl's mother, a very respectable woman, whom he discovered
to be the wife of the master and part owner of a small coasting vessel,
then away at sea. With a little maneuvering he managed to get into the
parlor where the daughter was at work, and to exchange a few words with
her. Her voice and manner completed the attraction of her face. Mr.
James Smith decided, in his headlong way, that he was violently in love
with her, and, without hesitating another instant, he took the lodgings
on the spot for a month certain.

It is unnecessary to say that his designs on the girl were of the most
disgraceful kind, and that he represented himself to the mother and
daughter as a single man. Helped by his advantages of money, position,
and personal appearance, he had made sure that the ruin of the girl
might be effected with very little difficulty; but he soon found that he
had undertaken no easy conquest.

The mother's watchfulness never slept, and the daughter's presence of
mind never failed her. She admired Mr. James Smith's tall figure and
splendid whiskers; she showed the most encouraging partiality for his
society; she smiled at his compliments, and blushed whenever he looked
at her; but, whether it was cunning or whether it was innocence, she
seemed incapable of understanding that his advances toward her were of
any other than an honorable kind. At the slightest approach to undue
familiarity, she drew back with a kind of contemptuous surprise in her
face, which utterly perplexed Mr. James Smith. He had not calculated on
that sort of resistance, and he could not see his way to overcoming it.
The weeks passed; the month for which he had taken the lodgings expired.
Time had strengthened the girl's hold on him till his admiration for her
amounted to downright infatuation, and he had not advanced one step yet
toward the fulfillment of the vicious purpose with which he had entered
the house.

At this time he must have made some fresh attempt on the girl's virtue,
which produced: a coolness between them; fo