"
"Your have no need of any indulgence, my dear countess; I am always very
grateful for every occasion that is given me for doing a little good."
"This concerns a poor creature who, unfortunately, had quitted Gerolstein
before your highness had established that institution, which is so
charitable, and so useful for young orphan or forsaken girls, whom nothing
protects from evil passions."
"And what has happened to her? what do you beg for her?"
"Her father, a very adventurous man, went to seek his fortune in America,
leaving his wife and daughter to a precarious mode of existence. The mother
died; the daughter, hardly sixteen years old when left to herself, quitted
the country to follow to Vienna a seducer, who soon forsook her. Then, as
always happens, the first step in the path of vice led this wretched girl
to an abyss of infamy; in a short time she became, like so many other
miserable creatures, the opprobrium of her sex."
Fleur-de-Marie cast down her eyes, blushed, and could not conceal a slight
shudder, which did not escape the maid of honor. Fearing to have wounded
the chaste susceptibility of the princess by conversing with her upon such
a creature, she continued, with embarrassment:
"I asks a thousand pardons of your royal highness; I have undoubtedly
offended you by drawing your attention to so polluted a being; but the
miserable one shows so sincere a repentance, that I thought I could solicit
for her a little pity.
Pages:
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533