children, and guests.
What Jim learnt on these occasions was this, that money and strong drink
were the chief things worth living for. He didn't believe it at first,
for he saw in his mother's cottage real happiness where there was little
money and less alcohol; he saw, too, on his suffering sister's brow a
gilding of heaven's sunshine more lovely than burnished gold, and a
smile on her thin pale lips, which grace and love made sweeter than the
most sparkling laugh of unsanctified beauty. Still, what he heard so
constantly on the lips of those better educated than himself left its
mark; he began to long for things out of his reach, and to pilfer a
little and then a little more of what _was_ in his reach, not money, but
drink. Indeed he heard so much about betting and gambling, his master's
guests seemed to find the cards and the dice box so convenient a way of
slipping a few pounds out of a friend's pocket into their own without
the trouble of giving an equivalent, that poor Jim got confused. True,
he had learnt in the eighth commandment, when a boy, the words, "Thou
shalt not steal"; but these better-informed guests at Mr Rothwell's
seemed able to take a flying leap over this scriptural barrier without
any trouble, so he swallowed his scruples and his master's wine at the
same time, and thought he should like to have an opportunity of turning
a snug little legacy of a hundred pounds, left him by an uncle, into
something handsomer by a lucky venture or two. Conscience was not
satisfied at first, but he silenced it by telling himself that he was
going to enrich his poor mother, and make a lady of his crippled sister.
Somehow or other there is a strange attraction that draws together
kindred spirits in evil. Mark Rothwell found out what was going on in
Jim's mind, and determined to make use of him; only, of course, so as to
get himself out of a little difficulty. Oh! No! He meant the poor lad
no harm; nay, he intended to put him in the way of making his fortune.
So one day after dinner Mark and the young man were closeted together
for an hour in the butler's pantry; wine flowed freely, and Jim was
given to understand that his young master was quite willing to admit his
humble companion into a choice little society of friends who were to
meet at the coachman's cottage on certain evenings, and play games of
chance, in which, after due instruction from Mark, a person of Jim's
intelligence would be sure to win a golde