"The agonized Mary could listen to naught more. For the first time in her life, out of the anguish and true love of her heart, she reproached the man to whom her every thought had been devoted--she reminded him of all his promises of affection, all his pledges of passion, she clung to him, and avowed by all that she considered holy, _himself_, that she would not let him go. In brief, she raised what 'fast men' style a scene, and a scene was just one of those things which irritated the merchant's son beyond his powers of control.
"The scoundrel, for such he was, though by birth, education, and position a gentleman, irritated at her entreaties, vexed with himself, despising the meanness of his own soul, and hating her for revealing it to him, raised his arm, and despite her look of love and sorrow, absolutely struck her to the earth. The poor girl never shrieked, never resisted, she even kissed, with an almost divinely tender forgiveness, his hand--his hand who struck her--and then fell to the floor of her pleasant, though humble little room, insensible.
"With a curse, half levelled at her and half at himself, the false 'lover' departed. The young millionaire never looked upon Mary R----'s face again. In three days there was no Mary R----'s face to look at; for the 'soiled dove' within that time had died--not from the blow, oh, no--_that_ was a trifle; but from the _unkindness_ of it; not from a fractured limb, or from a ruptured bloodvessel, but from a broken heart. She was buried at the expense of the woman of whom her destroyer had rented the little apartment on Sixth Avenue, where she had passed her happiest days and her last. The rich merchant's son heard of her death with a half sigh and then a shrug; but if ever the blood of a human being lay upon the head of another, that of poor Mary R--lies upon the head of the rich merchant's son, and will be required of him."
There are several associations in the city, whose object is to rescue lost women from their lives of shame. Prominent amongst these is the Midnight Mission.
This institution is located on Amity street, and is open at all hours, to all who seek its doors voluntarily, or are directed thither. The managers in a recent report, speak of their success as follows: