Parisian Frolics

A lady, young, fresh, extremely pretty and stylishly though quietly dressed, tripped daintily along a street in the neighbourhood of the Madeleine, in Paris, then disappeared into a respectable house, ran quickly up the stairs to the first floor and nervously pressed the button of the electric bell. The tinkle had hardly ceased when the door was open by a neat maid who ushered the visitor into a handsome drawing-room in which were assembled sundry other ladies, all young and fashionably dressed, but all wearing the pre-occupied air of persons about to have an interview with, say, their doctor or their solicitor. Presently, as if awaiting the new-comer, the mistress of the house appeared - tall, slender, exquisitely attired in black silk with a dainty head-dress of the style adopted by many English ladies of a certain age, possibly because of the undoubted air of distinction it confers. She smiled pleasantly at her young visitor as she shook hands with her; then with a murmured apology, she turned towards two of the other ladies and said: "Your friends have arrived and are awaiting you M - whereupon they rose and retired, smiling their thanks. Turning again to her young visitor, she said affectionately: - "My dear, some one is waiting also to see you, a gentleman, one of my best friends. If you are willing to let him make your acquaintance, I shall be happy to introduce him to you." This "good friend" was none other than myself! The house belonged to Madame de Saint-Edme, the most obliging of women and also the most tactful of her sex in the delicate mission of creating and establishing the most intimate of relations between persons of opposite sexes who desired to avail themselves of such services. To pretty women pressed for money or inconvenienced by their sexual appetites and desires, to mistresses "en titre" seeking to increase or supplement their alimony, nd to married women who found their allowances insufficient or their husbands' powers not equal to the mari