University of Virginia Library

8. CHAPTER VIII.

The moment Edward entered the drawing-room at Mr. Lauren's mansion,
Miss Laurens discovered, with that quickness of perception which
love gives to her sex, that he was under the influence of wine. His step
was gay, his manner bold, his color heightened. She had for some days
discovered with deep pain that the love of wine had taken a hold upon his
heart. She had only dared a look of reproof or caution, for she felt that
she had contributed her part to this dangerous temptation; nay, that but
for her invitation and encouragement he might not have taken the first glass
of wine! This self-condemnation was very bitter, and had caused her many
unhappy hours; and she at length resolved that, if she was guilty in leading
him to taste wine, she ought to use all her influence to prevail upon
him to stop ere it became a confirmed habit, when she knew that all her
happiness would be gone forever! But how to speak to him without offending
him! She knew he was very sensitive, and the impression that she
thought him so far gone in intemperance as to feel it necessary to talk with
him, might perhaps, render the danger still greater.

`Ah, Anne, my love!' he said approaching her with an air of gallantry,
`you look divinely! charmingly! Really you will captivate my heart a second
time! If Harry sees you to-night he will be sure to fall in love with
you!'

`Who do you mean by Harry?'

`Harry? why he is my chum! Harry Collins! first rate fellow, only a
little high spirited! He is—no he was—no he is in the army! He was in it
and was broken for—for—for—drinking they say. But he reformed, and
was restored again! Fine fellow! I must present him! Upon my soul, Anne,
you do look really irresistible! Ask me a favor—any thing! that I may have
the happiness of doing something to show how much I regard you! Were
I Emperor of the land I would lay my empire at your feet!'

As Edward thus spoke in a lively, tipsy sort of way, with a very voluble
utterance, he knelt on one knee before her and laid his hand impressively
upon his heart!

Miss Laurens felt as if she should sink through the floor. She had never
beheld him before so decidedly inebriated. Her heart was full and the
whispers of self-accusation made her tremble.

`Edward! rise up and do not make me wretched!' she said in a tremulons
voice.

`Wretched!' he repeated springing to his feet, his countenance radiant
with smiles, and catching her hand and pressing it with extravagant warmth
and ardor, `I make you wretched! I that would die to—'

`Cease, Edward! You just now asserted that you would do any thing I
asked of you!' she said in a serious voice.

`Were it the half of my kingdom!'

`Put an end to that light tone!'

`Can I be otherwise than light in the presence of the sun of all feminine
beauty?'

Miss Laurens sighed, withdrew her hand from his and silently seated
herself upon an ottoman nigh her, almost overcome with emotion. She
saw that, although he did not stagger, although he was neatly and richly
attired, that he was so much inebriated as not to be himself. His brain,

not his body was intoxicated. Tears came into her eyes, and she could
have shed them freely and bitterly.

He stood a moment gazing upon her as if struck with surprise. He then
approached her with a look as if he comprehended his own situation, and
the cause of her grief.

`Anne, I am very foolish. I have betrayed myself to you! I ask your
forgiveness. I met Harry and we indulged a little. Pardon me, I will not
offend again!'

`Edward, you wished me to name the favor I would ask. It is, that you
will never again drink wine! I condemn myself for asking you the first evening
you were here. I have since suffered greatly for my imprudence.—
Promise me, if you love me, that you will comply with my request!'

He remained standing before her thoughtful, His countenance became
very grave and a cloud passed across his brow.

`Anne, do you really think I am in danger of becoming intemperate?'

`I fear the worst, Edward!' she said earnestly.

`If I thought so I should cease to respect myself. I do not think so.—
I know that I have too much character and self-esteem ever to give way to
intemperance. Do not fear, Anne! Your apprehensions are goundless. I
don't know but that I ought to be angry with you for even suspecting such
a thing of me! A gentleman may take a glass or two of wine at dinner and
not be called a drunkard. Surely you do not condemn your father!'

`You should have had too much delicacy to speak of him,' said Miss
Laurens. `But my father is a gentleman of the old school. He has always
had his wine, and never drinks except at table, and moderately. I
would that he did not touch it at all. It is, however, his infirmity and I
must bear with it! But as for you—'

`As for me, Miss Laurens,' said Edward quickly and with a flush of displeasure,
for his pride was touched at being thus arranged by her for a folly
he had already condemned himself for; `I do not conceive that I am worse
than Mr. Laurens. I do not see what reason you have to be so severe upon
me and at the same time defend another, but for whom, I frankly confess
to you, I should never have tasted wine. Your father placed the first glass
in my hand, and you pledged me to drink it, when I had already refused to
do it. If I am in danger of becoming an intemperate man, (which I do not
think is very likely,' he added haughtily) `I have more reason to condemn
than you have!' He ceased, and walked across the room with an angry
tread.

Miss Laurens covered her face with her hands and her bosom heaved
with deep emotion.

`Edward, Edward!' she cried with anguish and bitterness in her accents
and flying towards him, cast herself upon her knees before him, `oh, Edward,
if I have done this evil to you, I did it thoughtlessly! Forgive me,
and do not overwhelm me with such reproaches. I confess my error! I implore
your forgiveness!'

`Anne,' he said raising her and pressing her to his bosom, `I am alone to
blame. I must ask forgiveness of you. I should not have said what I just
did if I had full control of myself. I solemnly swear to you that I am now
cured! I will drink no more wine!'

She looked up into his face with a smile of hope and encouragement
chasing away the tears and clouds, when Mr. Laurens entered.

`What so! Have I broken in upon a tender scene! Been quarrelling,
hey! I dare say it from your looks. Well, I am glad its made up. Lovers
have as many quarrels as married folks, only they are sooner over and they
love one another better for it afterwards; but the married folks dont! That's
the difference. Come, Anne, the carriage is at the door! We must be there

in time; so let us go into the other room and take a cup of tea and toast
and be off!'

By the time the carriage reached the theatre, Edward was perfectly sober;
though a sense of shame and a feeling of gloomy depression which
he could not throw off remained; being the natural reaction of the nervous
system after high artificial excitement, and which the wine drinker must
endure or remove by renewed stimulants.

The representation of Hamlet by the distinguished British tragedian must
have fulfilled the expectations of the large and fashionable audience assembled
to witness it; if a judgment can be formed from the plaudits which
from time to time shook the house. Miss Laurens appreciated and enjoyed
the piece with that pure pleasure which only can proceed from a well
cultivated mind and refined taste. Edward, for the time overcame his
gloom, and suffered the Magician of tragedy to carry him along with him
where he would.

In the interval between the fourth and fifth act as Edward bent down to
some remark made by Anne in reference to the last scene, there was heard
a sudden uproar in the lobby just outside of the box door, which was open,
and his ears were assailed by voices, crying,

`Turn him out!'

`You are a scoundrel!'

`You are a villain, sir!'

With these high words were heard sounds of a struggle with blows mingled,
as if one person was wrapping another over the shoulders with a cane.
The gentlemen in the box rushed out and so also did Edward, who thought
he recognized the tones of Harry Collins' voice in one of those that was
lifted up so loud.

On going into the passage he saw Harry and a gentleman grappling each
other, while the latter was endeavoring, as well as he could to use his cane
on the person of the former. A number of persons were trying to separate
them.

`You scoundrel, to insult a lady under my protection!' and up and down
again went the cane: but this time it was caught by Edward.

`Sir, this gentleman is my friend, what has he done?'

`Done! The drunken dog! I was coming out of my box with a lady,
when telling me that she had forgotten her fan, I imprudently quit her, leaving
her standing in the lobby when this fellow, with the outside of a gentleman
and wearing the button of a profession that should every where
stamp its wearer as a gentleman and man of honor, has the audacity to
throw his arm around her waist and ask her to take wine with him in the
saloon! The infernal—'

`He is intoxicated, sir,' said Edward again arresting a blow. `You would
not beat a man who cannot defend himself!'

`He deserves to be kicked into the street, and you too, sir, if you take his
part!'

`I do sir?' demanded Edward in a determined tone.

`Yes, you do, sir, if you defend a blackguard!'

`The gentleman is no doubt to blame, but was probably under the influence
of wine when he insulted the lady,' answered Edward with forced
calmness. Commit him to me, and I will answer for it, that to-morrow he
will make every apology that is required! As for you, sir,' he said in a low,
deep voice, `I shall expect you to apologize to me!'

D—me if I dont, Ned,' hiccupped Harry as the enraged gentleman
released his collar. `I say, Ned, you are a goo—good—good fellow, you
are! a t-t-tr-true friend!'

`You may thank me, I do not give you up to the police!' said the gentleman
very pale.

`I do thank you upon my s-s-sou-soul. I do p-p-p-'pon honor!' answered
Collins tipsily for himself. `The fact is you are a coward to strike—
(hiccup) a man with (hiccup) a cane! I'll have the satisfaction of a gentleman,
(hiccup)!'

`Come, Harry, let us go,' said Edward again sternly meeting the eye of
the man who had insulted him; and taking Collins by the arm he led him
into the vestibule and thence out towards the street. He now found his
friend was quite too much inebriated to walk steady. `Where have you
been to get so drunk?' he asked angrily.

`Drunk! Why I have been drinking, don't you know! I drank with you,
you know my boy! and then it was all down-hill after the first glass. I got
tipsy jist as easy! I have'nt tasted wine for ten months before to day!'

Edward felt as if he had received a heavy blow upon the breast. He
now saw the evil effects of his own indulgence in his friend. The consciousness
that he had been instrumental in placing him in this condition
in which he saw him, cut him to the heart. He resolved that he would not
leave him to do any more mischief, but accompany him home in a carriage
and then return to the play.

`Remain here one moment, Harry, while I excuse my absence to Miss
Laurens. Don't stir from the spot till I return to you!'

Harry would have found it difficult to have done so, as he had drank a
great deal in the theatre and was now thoroughly drunk. He had drank
after he had parted from Edward at his rooms, partly from despair and madness
at having been betrayed into drinking again, and partly to gratify the
resistless desire to drink deeper and deeper of the maddening cup which
he had so long kept from his lips, and which once more tasted made him
totally reckless of consequences.

While he stood there holding himself up by the door near the outer entrance
of the theatre three or four young men came forth, and as they passed
him one of them exclaimed,

`That is the fellow, now, Graham!'

`The young man turned round with a fiery air and fixing his flashing eyes
upon him advanced and said,

`So you are the villain that insulted my sister! Take that and that! I
have been looking for you! Take that!' And while speaking he pulled him
by the nose and kicked him and hurled him out of the door to the sidewalk
with a force that cast him upon his back on which he fell with violence.

`You have hurt him!' cried the friends of the incensed brother.

`I care not if I have killed him!'

The fall and shock instead of stunning Harry sobered him so far as to
cause him to rise to his feet and attack his antagonist with drunken fury.
The conflict gathered a crowd, and the police officer appearing took Collins
into custody and two of them led him off between them notwithstanding
his desperate struggles to free himself.

When Edward a moment after reappeared and not finding his friend,
learned from the bystanders the circumstances, his first impulse was to follow
and attempt to get him released; for he keenly felt how much he had
been to blame in the affair. While he was hesitating, a heavy hand slapped
him familiarly upon the shoulder and a voice he well knew, and started
to hear addressed him:

`Ah, Austin, how are you? You dont know me, hey?' said a young man
who looked very dissipated: His dress was ill put on; his neck-cloth awry,
and his eyes inflamed by drink.

`Is it you, Waldron?'

`You are as cold as salad! It is me. Come, Ned, let us have a glass of
wine together for old times!'

`You are intoxicated now! I dont wish any thing to say to you! Excuse
me, I have engaged with a party in the theatre!' answered Edward distantly.

`Oh, very well. You can keep sober and I cant,' said Ralph in a tone of
self-reproach and conscious degradation! `The truth is, Ned, that Hunting
Flask has been the ruin of me, and drink will be the death of me yet! I
wish I had taken your advice! Yes, I am tipsy, but I know what I am saying!
I wish I had taken your advice. I have got into a bad way; for, getting
into the habit of drinking, I am now drunk all the time!'

`If you are conscious of this failing why don't you stop?' said Edward
surprised to hear him say so.

`I must drink! I dare not not be sober a minute! Do you know I have
lost every dollar of my money gambling! This it is makes me drink. I
keep the Hunting Flask full of brandy in my room and if I wake up at
night and find from my thoughts troubling me, I am getting sobered, then I
drink till I drown 'em! It is a horrid life, Ned! I wish I had followed your
advice. I have now only a four shillings left. I am going to-night to venture
that, in a rum-hole, and if I lose it, as I dare say I shall, I shall then
become a gutter drunkard! I gamble in two-cent-a-glass cellars now! I
used to be good enough for Frankton's when I had my dollars! I have got
down to the two cent cut now! I am a poor devil, Ned!'

`You amaze me. I pity you, Ralph!'

`I don't want pity! You are a temperate man! keep so! never drink any
thing! The first glass may lead to hundreds! You are a respectable man!
I am a poor devil! Good night. Our careers lie different ways! When you
hear that I am dead, let me have one tear, Ned!'

`It is not too late to save yourself! You have such full consciousness of
your situation you can easily recover yourself!'

`No, Ned! I know I am going to hell. But I can't stop myself! There
is a fatality I must yield to! I have no control over my own will. I see the
right and do the wrong. A man who drinks gives the reins up to his passion
for drink, and the whip to the devil, and then his story is told! Good
night, Ned!'

Thus speaking Ralph Waldron disappeared among the crowd, leaving
Edward overcome with pity for him, and overwhelmed with alarm for himself!
Ralph was now just at the close of that career through which we have
already followed him in chapter Fifth, when he left Frankton's gambling
halls penniless, and self-castaway.

Edward returned to the box where he left Anne, but the remainder of
the play he was silent; for his conscience and heart were both heavy. His
gloom was observed by Miss Laurens, and she resorted to every alluring
grace of conversation to draw him out of this mood, without success. He
scarcely listened to her—seemed hardly conscious that he was in her presence.
At length the piece ended, and they left the theatre, Anne leaning
on Edward's arm. As they were about to enter the carriage Edward saw
coming out of the theatre the gentleman whom Harry had had the contest
with, and who had so grossly insulted himself. Instantly he was recalled
to what he conceived a duty due to his own honor, and which he had forgotten,
in reflecting upon poor Harry's fate. Not far from this person he
also saw a gentleman whom he had met several times at the hotel and whom
he knew to belong to one of the first families in town, though with rather a
flawry reputation. Still he was a `gentleman' and as such Edward had met
him in society.

`The very man I want;' he said half aloud. `Excuse me an instant
Miss Anne,' he added as he handed her into the carriage and saw her followed
by her father. He then crossed the walk to this person who was

leaning familiarly on the arm of De Witt Wittlesey, whom, however, Edward
did not at first recognize.

`Mr. Levis, I wish to see you on some private business. Will you be
so kind as to call in at the Astor and await my return from Bleeker street.
I have to see a lady home, and will return at once!'

`Bay all means, moy daar fallow,' answered Fred Levis; `but oi was just
walking over to P—'s with Witt here, as ye spoke! youa know Witt!'
Wittlesey extended his hand eagerly to shake that of Edward with great
warmth; for they had already before met and been introduced to each other.
Edward did not like him, for he knew his character, and that he was a
friend of Waldron's. Therefore he said to Levis in a peculiar tone; `you
will be quite alone and disengaged, Mr. Levis, if not I will find some other
friend!

`Oh, quite alone! another friend, eh? what is it an affair? I did hear of
a row and some high words in the lobby, I wonder if—'

Edward placed his finger upon his lip and Levis stopped.

`You will be there!'

`Say P—'s, as we were going there! I will await ye there!'

`Well, at P—'s in half an hour, answered Edward.

The next moment he was seated by the side of Miss Laurens in the carriage,
and entertained her in the liveliest manner as they rode; so that from
his excess of spirits, which he assumed to disguise his gloom of soul, she
began to fear he had taken wine. But Edward had not taken any wine
since he had left his hotel. The intoxicating influence of that had passed
off before he reached the theatre, but not so the effect. It left his mind as
we have seen in a dull, heavy humor, depressed and sullen. Cheerfulness
was banished, and dark feelings reigned in his thoughts. He was irritable
and sad at heart, and precisely in that crisis of temper which is most dangerous
to its possessor. The least spark would kindle in the smouldering
furnace of his moody feelings, quicker than when his brain had been more
directly excited by the intoxicating ether of the wine he had drunk. It was,
therefore, that he took offence so quickly and resented so determinedly the
angry words of an incensed man; which, at any other time he would, with
the forbearance and dignified moderation characteristic of his noble nature,
have passed by forgiven and forgotten. The inebriate is ever the most
quarrelsome in the hours of depression and gloom that follow the false
spirits, which he has borrowed from the wine-cup. Edward, therefore,
though not under the immediate intoxicating influence of wine when he so
rashly and unadvisedly committed himself to the gentleman who had such
good cause to be enraged with Collins, and any who called themselves his
friends, was yet governed by its effects and in bondage to its power!

These reflections passed through his own mind as he rode back alone,
with leisure to think; and the evil-doer always thinks rightly and judges
correctly upon his own acts and the causes which led to them.

`This all comes of that hateful wine-drinking,' he exclaimed bitterly as
the coach drew up before P—'s brilliantly lighted saloon. `Oh Anne,
Anne if you knew into what peril and guilt I have been driven, you would
weep, weep, that you ever encouraged me to take that first glass of wine!
Step by step, with gradual but fearfully rapid progression, I have become a
confirmed wine drinker! and my, God! what has not my example done to
others! I have ruined poor Harry! I have been his tempter, well knowing
his failure and that—Oh, God! I cannot dwell upon this! and if I think
about myself I shall go mad!'

He alighted from the coach and crossing the walk hurriedly entered the
dazzling hall, fearing to attract the notice of any grave citizen. He had
never before entered this luxurious scene of fashionable dissipation. He
stood an instant after entering, to survey the scene of Magnificence. It was

a vast apartment, panelled with mirrors, the walls adorned with rich and
voluptuous paintings, the ceiling exquisitely painted in fresco and colors,
and wherever his eye fell, it was agreeably surprised with the most tasteful
creatures of art, or dazzled with scenes of inconceivable splendor. From
a distant orchestra swelled the ravishing voices of beautiful singing girls,
mingled with the sounds of the harp and viol. The floor of the saloon was
thronged with guests, some walking up and down smoking cigars, others
standing in groups conversing with animation, others listening to the singing,
and commenting upon the richness of their voices, and the beauty of
their persons. Along the wall of glittering mirrors were ranged lines
of white marble tables, at which others were seated partaking of refreshments,
reading the news, or idly smoking and listening to the fair choristers.
At the extremity were seen open distant doors leading into apartments exhibiting
scarcely less luxury. One of them Edward saw was a billard
room!

While he was making these observations, Levis, who had seen him, came
forward and took his hand.

`Ah, moy dare faller! Ye are as punctual as Time! Now Oi am at yer
serviss moi dare faller!' and as the fashionable young man spoke he twirled
his gold eye-glass, levelled it from his eye at the singers and added, `foin
gearls. Austin! Foin voices, charmant! Ever been in here before?'

`Never.'

`Thought so, by your staring round! Shall be happy to show yer 'bout.!'

`I have first a favor to ask of you,' said Edward, who did not feel altogether
at home in such a crowd.

`Command me, Austin! I am at yer serviss!'

`Can we be retired here a few moments?'

`Oh yes, come with me,' answered Levis placing his arm in his, and walking
up the thronged hall.