“Not entirely.  One commits his crime against society within the pale of the law, the other commits his outside.  They are both criminals against the welfare of humanity.  One murders the body, and the other stabs the soul.  If I knew that Mr. Glossop was sorry for having been a liquor dealer and was bringing forth fruits meet for repentance, I would be among the first to hail his reformation with heartfelt satisfaction; but when I hear that while he no longer sells liquor, that he constantly offers it to his guests, I feel that he should rather sit down in sackcloth and ashes than fireside at sumptuous feasts, obtained by liquor selling.  When crime is sanctioned by law, and upheld by custom and fashion, it assumes its most dangerous phase; and there is often a fearful fascination in the sin that is environed by success.”

“Oh!  Belle do stop.  I really think that you will go crazy on the subject of temperance.  I think you must have written these lines that I have picked up somewhere; let me see what they are,——­

  “Tell me not that I hate the bowl,
   Hate is a feeble word.”

“No Jeanette, I did not write them, but I have felt all the writer has so nervously expressed.  In my own sorrow-darkened home, and over my poor father’s grave, I learned to hate liquor in any form with all the intensity of my nature.”

“Well, it was a good thing you were not at Mrs. Glossop’s last night, for some of our heads were rather dizzy, and I know that Mr. Romaine was out of gear.  Now Belle! don’t look so shocked and pained; I am sorry I told you.”

“Yes, I am very sorry.  I had great hopes that Mr. Romaine had entirely given up drinking, and I was greatly pained when I saw him take a glass of wine at your solicitation.  Jeanette I think Mr. Romaine feels a newly awakened interest in you, and I know that you possess great influence over him.  I saw it that night when he hesitated, when you first asked him to drink, and I was so sorry to see that influence.  Oh Jeanette instead of being his temptress, try and be the angel that keeps his steps.  If Mr. Romaine ever becomes a drunkard and goes down to a drunkard’s grave, I cannot help feeling that a large measure of the guilt will cling to your shirts.”

“Oh Belle, do stop, or you will give me the horrors.  Pa takes wine every day at his dinner and I don’t see that he is any worse off for it.  If Charles Romaine can’t govern himself, I can’t see how I am to blame for it.”

“I think you are to blame for this Jeanette:  (and pardon me if I speak plainly).  When Charles Romaine was trying to abstain, you tempted him to break his resolution, and he drank to please you.  I wouldn’t have done so for my right hand.”

“They say old coals are easily kindled, and I shall be somewhat chary about receiving attention from him, if you feel so deeply upon the subject.”

“Jeanette you entirely misapprehend me.  Because I have ceased to regard Mr. Romaine as a lover, does not hinder me from feeling for him as a friend.  And because I am his friend and yours also, I take the liberty to remonstrate against your offering him wine at your entertainments.”