she stepped out farther and faster in the widening sphere of her
life, surrounding influences did not improve.

Her extreme beauty and grace, and the consequent admiration and
flattery, developed an unusual degree of vanity, which had strengthened
with years; though now she had too much sense and refinement to
display it publicly. While generous and naturally warm-hearted,
the elements of gentleness and patient self-denial for the sake
of others at this time could scarcely have been discovered in her
character.

Indeed this beautiful girl, nurtured in a Christian land, a regular
attendant upon church, was a pagan and belonged to a pagan family.
Not one of her household worshipped God. Mr. and Mrs. Marsden
would have been exceedingly shocked and angered if they had been
told they were heathens. But at the time when Paul found among
the multitudinous altars of Athens one dedicated to the "Unknown
God," there were many Grecian men and women more highly cultivated
than these two aristocrats of to-day. But in spite of external
devoutness at church, it could easily be shown that to this girl's
parents the God of the Bible was as "unknown" and unheeded as the
mysterious and unnamed deity concerning whose claims the Apostle
so startled the luxurious Athenians. Like the ancient Greeks, all
had their favorite shrines that, to a greater or a less degree,
absorbed heart and brain.

Lottie was a votaress of pleasure: the first and about the only
article of her creed was to make everything and everybody minister
to her enjoyment. She rarely entered on a day with a more definite
purpose than to have a "good time"; and in the attainment of this