y eyes with pain. Its image
was perpetually before me. All the evening, while my outward eyes
looked into happy faces, my inward gaze rested gloomily on decanters
of brandy and bottles of wine crowding the supper-table, to which I
was soon to invite the young men--mere boys, some of them--and
maidens, whose glad voices filled the air of my drawing-rooms.

I tried to console myself by the argument that I was only doing as
the rest did--following a social custom; and that society was
responsible--not the individual. But this did not lift the weight of
concern and self-condemnation that so heavily oppressed me.

At last word came that all was ready in the supper-room. The hour
was eleven. Our guests passed in to where smoking viands, rich
confectionery and exhilarating draughts awaited them. We had
prepared a liberal entertainment, a costly feast of all available
delicacies. Almost the first sound that greeted my ears after
entering the supper-room was the "pop" of a champagne cork. I looked
in the direction from whence it came, and saw a bottle in the hands
of Albert Martindale. A little back from the young man stood his
mother. Our eyes met. Oh, the pain and reproach in the glance of my
friend! I could not bear it, but turned my face away.

I neither ate nor drank anything. The most tempting dish had no
allurement for my palate, and I shivered at the thought of tasting
wine. I was strangely and unnaturally disturbed; yet forced to
commend myself and be affable and smiling to our guests.

"Observe Mrs. Gordon," I heard a lady near me say in a low voice to
her companion.

"What of her?" was returned.

"Follow the direction of her eyes."

I did so, as well as the ladies near me, and saw that Mrs. Gordon
was looking anxiously at one of her sons, who was filling his glass
for, it might be, the second or third time.

"It is no place for that young man," one of them remarked. "I pity
his mother. Tom is a fine fellow at heart, and has a bright mind;
but he is falling into habits that will, I fear, destroy him. I
think he has too much self-respect to visit bar-rooms frequently;
but an occasion like this gives him a liberty that is freely used to
his hurt. It is all very respectable; and the best people set an
example he is too ready to follow."

I heard no more, but that was quite enough to give my nerves a new
shock and fill my heart with a new disquietude. A few minutes
afterwards I found myself at the side of Mrs.