thing in this akin to my own passionate
nature. I did not like anything tame and restrained. My mother was a
warm-hearted, loving woman, but so given to the world, so immersed in
the whirl of society that she could not spend much time with her
children. She saw that we were well fed, well dressed, well behaved,
and her duty was done. I remember so well how prettily she
looked--the dainty cap and collar, and when I used to put my arms
about her neck and tell her how pretty she was, she would put me aside
for fear I should spoil her toilet.

"My father was a proud-spirited man, who dearly loved my wild,
uncontrolled ways; there was no danger of mussing him, and rare sport
we used to have during his hours of leisure. I loved my father fondly,
and people said that I had more influence over him than any other
human being. Wealthy, and possessed of a social disposition, our house
was a rendezvous for all. An Englishman by birth, my father was
accustomed to seeing his sideboard well filled, and by degrees he grew
to frequent it too often.

"When I was about twelve years old my mother died, and after four
years spent in school I returned to find a great change in my father.
He would at times be gloomy and morose for days together, keeping the
whole house in a state of fear and discomfort by his sudden caprice
and unreasonable exactions. This would pass away and he would appear
as usual. These attacks grew to be more frequent, and at last came to
be his habitual frame, and his frequent absence from home, which at
first was a great sorrow to me, came to be looked for as a great
relief.

"Months passed on, and at last I woke up to know what others had known
for a long time, that my father was drinking deeply and losing
constantly at play. O, Maggie, I can never tell you the terrible
suffering through which I passed. I left society and shut myself up at
home, determined, if it was possible, to save him. I had influence
with him: but how could I appeal to him--how let him know that I knew
the places he frequented and the company he kept!

"Then change came. I grew indignant that he should bring all this
misery upon me--the poverty and disgrace that I felt sure must follow
such a course. Then in a moment of tenderness I would plead and
expostulate with him, begging him with tears to leave his habits of
dissipation for my sake, for his own sake, for the sake of my dead
mother; while he would talk and weep, telling me that he coul