had been with the contractor--"the
matter is in your own hands entirely: if you cannot keep your lips
from that accursed poison, you have nothing in this world to look
forward to; nothing, nothing!"

Mary proposed to return with her uncle to Greshamsbury, and he was
at first well inclined that she should do so. But this idea was
overruled, partly in compliance with Lady Scatcherd's entreaties, and
partly because it would have seemed as though they had both thought
the presence of its owner had made the house an unfit habitation for
decent people. The doctor therefore returned, leaving Mary there; and
Lady Scatcherd busied herself between her two guests.

On the next day Sir Louis was able to come down to a late dinner, and
Mary was introduced to him. He had dressed himself in his best array;
and as he had--at any rate for the present moment--been frightened
out of his libations, he was prepared to make himself as agreeable as
possible. His mother waited on him almost as a slave might have done;
but she seemed to do so with the fear of a slave rather than the love
of a mother. She was fidgety in her attentions, and worried him by
endeavouring to make her evening sitting-room agreeable.

But Sir Louis, though he was not very sweetly behaved under these
manipulations from his mother's hands, was quite complaisant to
Miss Thorne; nay, after the expiration of a week he was almost more
than complaisant. He piqued himself on his gallantry, and now found
that, in the otherwise dull seclusion of Boxall Hill, he had a good
opportunity of exercising it. To do him justice it must be admitted
that he would not have been incapable of a decent career had he
stumbled upon some girl who could have loved him before he stumbled
upon his maraschino bottle. Such might have been the case with many
a lost rake. The things that are bad are accepted because the things
that are good do not come easily in his way. How many a miserable
father reviles with bitterness of spirit the low tastes of his son,
who has done nothing to provide his child with higher pleasures!

Sir Louis--partly in the hopes of Mary's smiles, and partly
frightened by the doctor's threats--did, for a while, keep himself
within decent bounds. He did not usually appear before Mary's eyes
till three or four in the afternoon; but when he did come forth, he
came forth sober and resolute to please. His mother was delighted,
and was not slow to sing his praises; and even the do