Her words were not threatening, but were spoken with the calmness of inexorable resolve, and he sat before her with an ashen face, trembling like an aspen, for it was like the Day of Judgment to him.  Then in gentler and pleading accents she told him of their plan to place him under skilful treatment, and besought him to yield himself up to the care of one who had won much reputation in dealing with cases like his own; but all the encouragement she could obtain were the words, “I’ll think of it.”

The memory of those fearful days on shipboard, when he was without morphia, made him recoil with unspeakable dread from a like ordeal again, but he promised earnestly that he would indulge no more in liquor.  With the cunning of an opium maniac he understood his danger, knowing that further scenes of violence would lead to his arrest and imprisonment.  Of his gentle wife he had no fears, but this frail, resolute girl subdued him.  He saw that he was driving a strong nature to desperation—­saw it with all the agony and remorse of a naturally good father whose better nature was bound hand and foot by depraved appetites.  He was conscious of the terrible wrong that he was inflicting on those for whom he once would have died to shield them from a breath of dishonor.  But, come what might, he must have opium now, and to counteract the words of his daughter he took enough morphia to kill all the wretched inmates of the tenement.  Under its slight exhilaration he felt some hope of availing himself of the proposition that he should go to a curative institution, and he half promised that he would before long.  At this point the painful interview ended, and Mildred went for Belle, who as yet had no knowledge of their change of abode.

As the two girls returned, in the dusk of evening, to the long dark passageway that led to the tenement in which they now had rooms, Mildred trembled with fear as she saw that its entrance was surrounded and blocked by a group of rough-looking young men and boys.  Belle pushed boldly through them, although they leered, laughed, and made coarse jests.  Mildred followed shrinkingly, with downcast eyes.  “We’ll tache ’em to be neighborly,” were the last words she heard, showing that the young ruffians had already obtained their cue from their depraved and low-lived parents.

They looked forward to a dismal evening, but a loyal friend came to their rescue.  Roger, having arranged the room selected for him by Mr. Wentworth, could not resist the temptation to see those who were ever uppermost in his thoughts.  In dismay and anxiety he learned of their hasty removal and something of the causes which led to it.  From the janitor he obtained their present address, and the appearance of his broad shoulders and fearless face had a restraining influence on the mischief-making propensities of the rowdies who kennelled in the vicinity.  The alien new-comers evidently were not friendless, and there was hesitation in the half-formed measures for their annoyance.