e freely dispensed is to put a human soul in peril."

"Mr. Birtwell may not have known anything about him," replied Dr.
Angier.

"All very true. But there is one thing he did know."

"What?"

"That he could not invite a company of three hundred men and women to
his house, though he selected them from the most refined and
intelligent circles in our city, and give them intoxicating drinks as
freely as he did last night, without serious harm. In such accompany
there will be some, like Mr. Ridley, to whom the cup of wine offered in
hospitality will be a cup of cursing. Good resolutions will be snapped
like thread in a candle-flame, and men who came sober will go away, as
from any other drinking-saloon, drunk, as he went out last night."

"Drinking-saloon! You surprise me, doctor."

"I feel bitter this morning; and when the bitterness prevails, I am apt
to call things by strong names. Yes, I say drinking-saloon, Doctor
Angier. What matters it in the dispensation whether you give away or
sell the liquor, whether it be done over a bar or set out free to every
guest in a merchant's elegant banqueting-room? The one is as much a
liquor-saloon as the other. Men go away from one, as from the other,
with heads confused and steps unsteady and good resolutions wrecked by
indulgence. Knowing that such things must follow; that from every
fashionable entertainment some men, and women too, go away weaker and
in more danger than when they came; that boys and young men are tempted
to drink and the feet of some set in the ways of ruin; that health is
injured and latent diseases quickened into force; that evil rather than
good flows from them,--knowing all this, I say, can any man who so
turns his house, for a single evening, into a drinking-saloon--I harp
on the words, you see, for I am feeling bitter--escape responsibility?
No man goes blindly in this way."

"Taking your view of the case," replied Dr. Angier, "there may be
another death laid at the door of Mr. Birtwell."

"Whose?" Dr. Hillhouse turned quickly to his assistant. They had
reached home, and were standing in their office.

"Nothing has been heard of Archie Voss since he left Mr. Birtwell's
last night, and his poor mother is lying insensible, broken down by her
fears."

"Oh, what of her? I was called for in the night, and you went in my
place."

"I found Mrs. Voss in a state of coma, from which she had only
partially recovered when I left at daylight. Mr. Voss is in