all thoughts of it at once."

"Well, dear Frank, papa has been having a long talk on the very subject
at the hall, and has convinced both your father and mother that total
abstinence is not the objectionable thing they have hitherto thought it
to be. Oh, dear Frank, there is no hindrance _there_ then, if you still
think as you once seemed to think on this subject."

The colour came into his face, and his brow was troubled as he said,--

"Why should you distress yourself about this matter, my own dear Mary.
Cannot you trust me? Cannot you believe that I will be strictly
moderate? Have I not promised?"

"You _have_ promised; and I would hope and believe that--that--" She
could not go on, her tears choked her words.

"Ah, I know what you would say," he replied passionately; "you would
reproach me with my failure--my one failure, my failure under
extraordinary excitement and weakness--I thought you had forgiven me
_that_. Have I not kept my promise since then? Cannot you trust me,
unless I put my hand to a formal pledge? If honour, love, religion,
will not bind me, do you think that signing a pledge will do it?"

"I have not asked you to sign any pledge," she replied sorrowfully;
"though I should indeed rejoice to see you do it. I only hoped--oh, how
fervently!--that you might see it to be your wisdom, your safety, to
become a total abstainer. Oh, dearest Frank, you are so kind, so open,
so unsuspecting, that you are specially liable to be taken off your
guard, unless fortified by a strength superior to your own. Have you
really sought that strength? Oh, ask God to show you your duty in this
matter. It would make me so very, very happy were you to be led to
renounce at once and for ever those stimulants which have ruined
thousands of noble souls."

"Dearest Mary, were this necessary, I would promise it you in a moment.
But it is not necessary. I am no longer a child. I am not acting in
the dark. I see what is my duty. I see that to exceed moderation is a
sin. I have had my fall and my warnings, and to be forewarned is to be
forearmed. Trust me, dear Mary--trust me without a pledge, trust me
without total abstinence. You shall not have cause to blush for me
again. Believe me, I love you too well."

And with this she was forced to be content. Alas! poor Frank; he little
knew the grasp which the insidious taste for strong drink had fixed upon
him. He _liked_ it once, he _loved_ it now. And beside