“But surely that need not be, Jane.  You know that I cannot be always with you.”

“No, of course not,” was uttered, mechanically; and then followed a long silence.

“So you will not go,” Marshall at length said.

“I should not enjoy the meeting, and therefore do not wish to go,” his wife replied.

“I am sorry for it, but cannot help it now, for I should not feel right were I not to comply with my promise.”

“I do not wish you to break it, of course.  For a promise should ever be kept sacred,” Mrs. Marshall said, with a strong emphasis on the latter sentence.

This emphasis did not escape the notice of her husband, who felt that it was meant, as it really was, to apply to his state of mind in regard to the pledge.  For it was a fact, which the instinctive perception of his wife had detected, that he had begun, seriously, to argue in his own mind, the question, whether, under the circumstances of the case, seeing, that, in taking the pledge, the principle of protection was alone considered, he was any longer bound by it.  He did not, however, give expression to the thoughts that he had at the time.  The subject of conversation was changed, and, in the course of half an hour, he left to fulfil his engagement, which had not, in reality, been a positive one.  As he closed the door after him, Mrs. Marshall experienced a degree of loneliness, and a gloomy depression of feeling, that she could not fully account for, though she could not but acknowledge that, for a portion of it, there existed too certain a cause, in the strange and dangerous position her husband had taken in regard to the pledge.

As Marshall emerged from his dwelling, and took his way towards the friend’s house, where he expected to meet a select company, his mind did not feel perfectly at ease.  He had partly deceived his wife in reference to the positive nature of the engagement, and had done so in order to escape from an attendance on a temperance meeting.  This did not seem right.  There was, also, a consciousness in his mind that it would be extremely hazardous to throw off the restraints of his pledge, at the same time that a resolution was already half formed to do so.  The agitation of mind occasioned by this conflict continued until he arrived at his friend’s door, and then, as he joined the pleasant company within, it all subsided.

“A hearty welcome, Marshall!” said the friend, grasping his hand and shaking it warmly.  “We were really afraid that we should not have the pleasure of your good society.  But right glad am I, that, with your adherence to temperance men and temperance principles, you do not partake of the exclusive and unsocial character that so many assume.”

“I regard my friends with the same warm feelings that I ever did,” Marshall replied,—­“and love to meet them as frequently.”

“That is right.  We are social beings, and should cultivate reciprocal good-feelings.  But don’t you think, Marshall, that some of you temperance folks carry matters too far?”