+-------------------------------------------------+ |Transcriber's note: | | | |Obvious typographic errors have been corrected. | | | +-------------------------------------------------+ FASHION AND FAMINE. BY MRS. ANN S. STEPHENS. There is no sorrow for the earnest soul That looketh up to God in perfect faith. TWENTY-FIFTH THOUSAND. New York: BUNCE & BROTHER, PUBLISHERS, 134 NASSAU STREET. MDCCCLIV. ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by MRS. ANN S. STEPHENS, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court, for the Southern District of New York. Republished in London by RICHARD BENTLEY, through special arrangement with the Author W. H. TINSON, STEREOTYPER, 24 Beckman Street. TAWS, RUSSELL & CO., Printers, 26 Beekman and 18 Spruce St., N. Y. To MRS. LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY, OF HARTFORD, CONN., THE MOST VALUED FRIEND THAT I HAVE, AND ONE OF THE BEST WOMEN I EVER KNEW, THIS BOOK Is Most Respectfully Dedicated. ANN S. STEPHENS. Preface. What shall I say in this Preface to my book? Shall I make the usual half-sincere, half-affected apology of haste and inexperience, with hints of improvement in future efforts? Indeed I cannot, for though this volume really is the first novel ever printed in book form under my name, its imperfections, whatever they are, arise from no inexperience or undue haste, but from absolute lack of power to accomplish that which I have undertaken. Nor is it probable that the points in which I have failed here, would be very greatly improved were the same book to be written again.