The Star in the West

THE VIRGIN 77 we include here ; for such a one at any rate is not a true prostitute , rather a poor deluded girl , yearning to love and be loved , romantic and foolish , yet kind hearted and charitable to a fault : often the plaything of man , and oftener the means of livelihood of some bad woman . As Jenny wrapped in “ the homage of the dim boudoir , ” was Nina ; one of that large flotsam of fragile girlhood which forms the better drift of vice , the first to be swallowed in the social Maelstrom . Yes : Nina was a thing of nought , A little laughing lewd gamine , Idle and vicious , void of thought , Easy , impertinent , unclean Utterly charming ! Yes , my queen ! She had a generous baby soul, Prattled of love . Should I control , Repress , perhaps, the best instinct The child had ever had ? I winked At foolish neighbours , did not shirk . Such café Turc I made her drink As she had never had before ; Set her where you are sitting ; chatted ; Found where the fires of laug ter lurk ; Played with her hair , tangled and matted ; Fell over strict nice conduct's brink , Gave all she would , and something more . She was an honest little thing , Gave of her best , asked no response . What more could Heaven's immortal King Censed with innumerous orisons ?1 What more indeed ! Nina is charming , and we wish we could say the same of many a Society dame who holds her breath each time she passes such a one . We have by now certainly slightly diverged from 1 The Star and the Garter , vol . iii, p . 10. Nina is not a prosti tute , of course , in the commercial sense .