mother, while the lacings remained as tense as ever.

It is unnecessary to trace, step by step, the folly of Amanda
Beaufort through a series of years--years that caused her mother
much and painful anxiety--up to her twenty-sixth summer, when, as a
wife and mother, she was suffering the penalty of her indiscretion,
proving too clearly the truth, that the way of transgressors is
hard. In spite of all her mother's warnings and remonstrances, she
had continued to expose herself to the night air in damp weather--to
attend balls thinly clad, and remain at them to a very late hour,
and to lace herself so tightly as to seriously retard the healthy
action of the vital organs. At the age of twenty-three she married.
A year after, the birth of a child gave her whole system, which had
indicated long before its feebleness, a powerful shock, from which
the reaction was slow and unsteady. The colour never came back to
her cheek, nor the elasticity to her frame. She had so long
subjected herself to the pressure of an artificial external support,
that she could not leave off her stays without experiencing such a
sinking, sickening sensation, as she called it, that she was
compelled to continue, however reluctantly, the compression and
support of tightly-laced corsets. And from frequently taking cold,
through imprudence, the susceptibility had become so great, that the
slightest dampness of the feet or the exposure to a light draught of
air was sure to bring on a cough of hoarseness. Her nervous system,
too, was sadly shattered. Indeed, every indication presented,
foreshadowed a rapid and premature decline--consequent, solely, upon
her thoughtless imprudence in earlier years.

"Shall I never feel any better, ma?" asked Amanda, one day, as a
faint sickness came over her, compelling her to resign her dear