with a startling sensation of fear, that
there was an alteration in her husband, though even then the change was
so shadowy and indefinite that it could not be defined by words.

It was known by that quick, prophetic sense which reveals to the heart
of woman the first variation in the pulse of affection, though it be so
slight that no other touch can detect it.

Edward was still fond, affectionate, admiring; and when he tendered her
all the little attentions demanded by her situation, or caressed and
praised his beautiful son, she felt satisfied and happy. But when she
saw that, even without her, the convivial circle had its attractions,
and that he could leave her to join it, she sighed, she scarce knew why.
"Surely," she said, "I am not so selfish as to wish to rob him of
pleasure because I cannot enjoy it with him. But yet, once he told me
there was no pleasure where I was not. Alas! is it true, what I have so
often heard, that such feelings cannot always last?"

Poor Augusta! she knew not how deep reason she had to fear. She saw not
the temptations that surrounded her husband in the circles where to all
the stimulus of wit and intellect was often added the zest of _wine_,
used far too freely for safety.

Already had Edward become familiar with a degree of physical excitement
which touches the very verge of intoxication; yet, strong in
self-confidence, and deluded by the customs of society, he dreamed not
of danger. The traveller who has passed above the rapids of Niagara may
have noticed the spot where the first white sparkling ripple announces
the downward tendency of the waters. All here is brilliancy and beauty;
and as the waters ripple and dance in the sunbeam, they seem only as if
inspired by a spirit of new life, and not as hastening to a dreadful
fall. So the first approach to intemperance, that ruins both body and
soul, seems only like the buoyancy and exulting freshness of a new life,
and the unconscious voyager feels his bark undulating with a thrill of
delight, ignorant of the inexorable hurry, the tremendous sweep, with
which the laughing waters urge him on beyond the reach of hope or
recovery.

It was at this period in the life of Edward that one judicious and manly
friend, who would have had the courage to point out to him the danger
that every one else perceived, might have saved him. But among the
circle of his acquaintances there was none such. "_Let every man mind
his own business_" was their