THE TEXAN HUNTRESS. 339 



into my ears, and the running commentary upon this anxious 

 care for humanity was furnished in the dissolute habits of the 

 family. A more vicious, mean, and cowardly set of knaves 

 and beasts I never saw congregated in one household. It 

 was a perfect epitome of the vices of civilization. With an 

 immense inherited fortune and entire leisure, they united 

 untameable passions and great intellectual activity — without 

 one particle of faith or of honor. Each mounted a hobby 

 because it was the fashion, and rode it until ' the galled jade 

 winced !' The passion for notoriety, which predominated 

 among them, was inexorable. All the lustful vices a corrupt 

 humanity ever dreamed of, were practised among them. These 

 were absolutely carried to hideous excesses, and I became a 

 victim. 



" The family were very handsome, and the oldest son was 

 magnificently so. He early cast his eyes upon me. His 

 advances were very subtle. He discovered my tendency 

 towards what are called liberal views, and upon that key-note 

 his skill was Satanic as his will was invincible. He imbued 

 me fully with the knowledge of all modern isms — libertinism 

 among the rest — in the end ! Nothing that clairvoyance has 

 guessed, Swedenborg dreamed, or Fourier idealised, but that 

 I heard it all in his soft musical tones, breathed insidiously 

 against my cheek. I believed it all, and believed him. My 

 ruin was the consequence, as I have hinted. I bore him a 

 child ! The wretch had removed me from my place, and 

 deserted me before the child was born ! Why should I de- 

 scribe the sufferings of a strong nature under such a wrong ? 

 Like natures understand them better without description ! A 

 friend who knew and loved me, a just and righteous man, 

 adopted the child of shame, and has done well by him. 



One dark night, beneath a murky lamp, I met and stabbed 

 the villain, in the place where I had awaited him for hours. 

 He knew me as he fell, and I laughed in his dying ear. I 

 fled the country, of course, and came to Texas. In Galveston 



