r; "ye hae been
at it in spite o' me."

And Mr Cupples burst into silent tears--no unusual phenomenon in men
under the combined influences of emotion and drink. Notwithstanding his
own elevated condition, Alec was shocked.

"Mr Cupples," he said, "I want to tell you all about it."

Mr Cupples took no notice. Alec began his story notwithstanding, and as
he went on, his friend became attentive, inserting here and there an
expletive to the disadvantage of Beauchamp, whose behaviour with regard
to Kate he now learned for the first time. When Alec had finished,
Cupples said solemnly:

"I warned ye against him, Alec. But a waur enemy nor Beauchamp has
gotten a sickerer haud o' ye, I doobt. Do 'at he like, Beauchamp's dirk
couldna hurt ye sae muckle as yer ain han', whan ye liftit the first
glass to yer ain mou' the nicht. Ye hae despised a' my warnings. And
sorrow and shame'll come o' 't. And I'll hae to beir a' the wyte o' 't.
Yer mither'll jist hate me like the verra black taed that no woman can
bide. Gang awa' to yer bed. I canna bide the sicht o' ye."

Alec went to bed, rebuked and distressed. But not having taken enough
to hurt him much, he was unfortunately able, the next morning, to
regard Mr Cupples's lecture from a ludicrous point of view. And what
danger was he in more than the rest of the fellows, few of whom would
refuse a tumbler of toddy, and fewer of whom were likely to get
drunk?--Had not Alec been unhappy, he would have been in less danger
than most of them; but he was unhappy.

And although the whisky had done him no great immediate injury, yet its
reaction, combined with the loss of blood, made him restless all that
day. So that, when the afternoon came, instead of going to Mr Cupples
in the library, he joined some of the same set he had been with the
evening before. And when he came home, instead of going up-stairs to Mr
Cupples, he went straight to bed.

The next morning, while he was at breakfast, Mr Cupples made his
appearance in his room.

"What cam' o' ye last nicht, bantam?" he asked kindly, but with evident
uneasiness.

"I cam' hame some tired, and gaed straucht to my bed."

"But ye warna hame verra ear'."

"I wasna that late."

"Ye hae been drinkin' again. I ken by the luik o' yer een."

Alec had a very even temper. But a headache and a sore conscience
together were enough to upset it. To be out of temper with oneself is
to be out of temper with the universe.

"Did my mother comm