s presence,
his thoughts followed this new course, his hands clenching and
unclenching themselves, his teeth burying themselves from time to time
in his thin under lip. So long he sat thus, that Constance herself, from
watching and wondering at his strange mood, wandered off into a sad
reverie, the subject of which she could hardly have told, it was such a
vague mixture of Sybil's sorrows and her own unrest.

After a time he stirred as if arousing himself with difficulty from a
nightmare; and Constance, recalled to herself, in turn, looked up to
encounter his gaze, and to be astonished at the new, purposeful
self-restraint upon his face, and the inscrutable intentness of his eye.

"Con.," he said slowly, even his voice seeming to have gained a new
strange undertone, "Con., you are an angel. You have set me on my feet."

"On your feet, Evan?"

"Yes, on my feet, mentally at least. I don't suppose any one could set
me permanently on my physical, corporeal pins. Beg pardon for the slang,
Conny, I don't forget how you and Sybil used to lecture me for that, and
my other vices. Poor sis, she had given up the drink talks latterly,
given me over as hopeless, and so I am. Con., I have made a new
resolve."

Constance smiled faintly.

"Oh, you smile. You think I am going to swear off again. No, Con.,
that's of no use, I should know myself for a liar all the time. I shall
never quit liquor; I _can't_ and I tell you," he whispered this
fiercely, "they _know that I can't_, and they know _why_ I can't. Oh!
you need not recoil; we are not the first family that has inherited a
taint; and I am the one unfortunate in whom that taint has broken forth.
Let me tell you a secret; since my first potation, my mother has never
once remonstrated with me; never once upbraided; my proud, high tempered
mother. She knows the folly of trying to reclaim the irreclaimable.
But," lowering his voice, sadly, "my mother never loved me."

She shuddered at the tone, knowing that this last statement, at least,
was all too true, and, to direct his thoughts from so painful and
delicate a subject, said:

"And your resolve then, Evan?"

"My resolve," his mouth settling into hard lines once more. "Oh, that!
well, it is a resolve you put into my head, Con.; although I'll swear
the thought was never in _your_ mind. I have resolved to act upon your
advice; to curb my heathenish temper, and to _help Sybil_, when the
_right time comes_, in the right way."

S