The Lady of the Camellias

thout first having made a lengthy study of people, just as it is imposs

age to invent, I must mak

tory is true. All the characters who appear in it, w

vouch for their accuracy should my word not be enough. By a singular turn of events, I alone was able to write them down since I alon

at these particulars

f furniture and valuable curios. An estate was to be disposed of, the owner having died. The notice did not n

apartments and contents could

ed myself I would not miss this opportunity, if n

directed my steps t

also a number of ladies who, though dressed in velvet and wearing Indian shawls, and all with their own elegant b

ne thing that ladies of fashion desire to see above all else ?and there were society ladies present ? it is the rooms occupied by those women who have carriages which spatter their own with mud every day of the we

ld always say, if they needed the excuse, that they had done no more than come to a sale without knowing whose rooms these were. I had read the notices, they had wanted to view what the notices advertised and mark out their select

eavours these good ladies found only what had been put up for sale since the time of d

rb. Rosewood and Buhl-work pieces, Severs vases and blue china porce

was about to go in after them, when they came out again almost immediately, smiling and as it were put to shame by this latest revelation. The effect was to make me

tion, and among the countless objects each so essential to the appearance of the kind of woman in whose home we had gathered, there was not one that was not

ome time agreeably inspecting its contents, neglecting none of them, and I noticed that all

God had been merciful to her since He had not suffered her to live long enough to undergo the usual punishment but had all

ard. I once knew a former woman of easy virtue of whose past life there remained only a daughter who was almost as beautiful as the mother had once been, or so her contemporaries said. This poor child, to whom her mother never said 'You are my daughter' except to order her to keep her now that

ntinuing ill- health, had extinguished in the girl the knowledge of good and evi

escorting her as assiduously as a true mother might have accompanied her daughter. I was very young in those days and ready enough to fal

nveyed such a feeling of innocence nor any co

it was the image of

rt of her which remained pure trembled with joy. The soul finds refuge in the strangest sanctuaries. Louise ran to her mother to tell her the news that had filled her with such happiness. It is a shameful thing to have to say ?but we do not write gratuitously of immorality here, we relate a true incident and one perhaps which we would be better advised to leave untold if we did not believe that it is essential from

he was a friend of the mother)called to see Louise, who remained for a

and physical salvation. But this latest blow had been too great and

l lives. How? G

st have been lost in thought for quite some time. For by now the apartment was empty save for mysel

man in whom I inspire

if you could tell me the name

le Margueri

ng woman by nam

e porter. 'Marguerit

, si

id it h

eks ago,

being allowed to v

le can get the effect of the hangings and the furniture

had debt

sir! Lots

the sale will

and ab

nds to get t

fam

ad a f

s she

you ver

as to my intentions, tou

eath, for in her world, people only keep their friends as long as they stay fi

t I have a boundless forbearance towards courtesans

y two policemen. Now I have no idea what she had done. All I can say is that she was weeping bitterly and clasping to her a child only a few mo

b