Upon the carpet were a pair of elegant French boots and a cap, evidently designed for Miss Josephine. Various articles of decoration and costume were scattered about: upon a dressing-table (whereon stood a superb mirror,) were the usual luxurious trifles which appertain to a fashionable toilet--perfumes, cosmetics, &c.--and in one corner stood a magnificent bed. This was the chamber of Josephine; that young lady and her mother were arraying themselves for a grand fancy and masquerade ball to be given that night, at the princely mansion of a _millionaire_. By listening to their conversation, we shall probably obtain a good insight into their true characters. 'I am thinking, mamma,' said Josephine--'that I might have selected a better costume for this occasion, than these boys' clothes. I shall secure no admirers.' 'Silly girl,' responded her mother--'don't you know that the men will all run distracted after a pretty woman in male attire? Besides, such a costume will display your shape so admirably.' 'Ah, that is true,' remarked the beautiful girl, smiling so as to display her brilliant teeth; and removing her feminine garment, she stood before the mirror to admire her own distracting and voluptuous loveliness. 'And this costume of an Oriental Queen--do you think it will become me, my love,' asked her mother. 'Admirably,' replied Josephine--'it is exactly suitable to your figure. Ah, mamma, your days of conquest are not over yet.' 'And yours have just begun, my dear. Yours is a glorious destiny, Josephine; beautiful and rich, you can select a husband from among the handsomest and most desirable young gentlemen in the city. But you must profit by _my_ experience: do not be in haste to unite yourself in marriage to a man who, when he becomes your husband, will restrict you in the enjoyment of those voluptuous pleasures in which you now take such delight. _I_ 'married in haste and repented at leisure;' after my union with your father, I found him to be a cold formalist and canting religionist, continually boring me with his lectures on the sins and folly of 'fashionable dissipation,' as he termed the elegant amusements suitable to our wealth and rank and discoursing upon the pleasures of the domestic circle, and such humbugs. All this was exceedingly irksome to me, accustomed as I was to one unvarying round of excitement; but your father was as firm as he was puritanical--and obstinately interposed his authority as a husband, to prevent my indulging in my favorite entertainments. This state of affairs continued, my dear, until you attained the age of sixteen, when you began to feel a distaste for the insipidity of a domestic life, and longed for a change.--Our positions were then precisely similar: we both were debarred from the delights of gay society, for which we so ardently longed. One obstacle, and one only, lay in our way; that obstacle was your father--my husband. We were both sensible that we never could enjoy ourselves in our own