“I was in Harvard College and it was the summer vacation after my junior year.  Every male member of our family”—­Old Dan spoke that “our” with timid and shame-faced, but very evident, pride—­“for I don’t know how many generations, has gone to Harvard, and I suppose I am the only one of the whole lot of them that didn’t graduate.  I went to New York that summer to transact some business for my father.  I succeeded with it very well, but in the meantime I did n’t neglect the opportunities of enjoying myself with a good deal more freedom than I would have dared to take at home.  I probably was n’t born quite up to the high standard of morality, dignity, and self-respect which my ancestors had set; and if I had stayed there all my life I would probably have found living up to it either very galling or quite impossible.  I dare say it is just as well that I did break loose and burn the bridge behind me, for if I had stayed in New England it’s likely I should have turned out a black sheep and brought shame and disgrace upon my people.

“While I was in New York I fell in with a pleasant, companionable man, some years older than myself.  He went around with me a good deal, took me to his home, where I met his wife and sister, gave me sensible advice about a number of things, and was altogether so entertaining and so kind and such a good fellow that I thought myself fortunate in having met him.

“One evening, when I was almost ready to return to Boston, I dined with him at his home.  He had had me there to dinner several times, and the evening had always passed off pleasantly.  But on this evening I drank more wine than was good for me.  Probably it was doctored, but I don’t know.  All my life, whenever I have taken a glass too much, one sure result has followed.  All the restraints of conduct which I ordinarily feel drop away, and I become reckless.

“So this evening, when he brought out cards and we began to bet on the game, both my moral sense and my prudence deserted me.  I drank more and more, and bet higher and higher, and after a while I realized that he had won from me quite a sum of money which I had neglected to send to my father during the day.

“Then I drank more; and after that I do not know what happened until I awoke with a dazed sense of having heard a woman scream and of being in the midst of some confusion.  I felt a blow on my head and a grip on my arm and heard a voice shouting in my ear, ’You scoundrel, I ’ll kill you!’ I was in another room, my friend’s wife was sobbing hysterically on a lounge, and he was gripping and shaking me and pointing a pistol at my head.

“He said I had shamefully insulted his wife and that he was going to kill me.  And I was drunk enough to believe him, and maudlin enough to beg for my life and to accept with tears what terms he was willing to offer.  It was finally settled that he should keep me under his personal charge until I could get five thousand dollars from my father to pay over to him.  Then he made me write a letter to my father which he dictated.