For a few days the most engrossing topic in A.P. was what shall I wear,
and what will you wear. There was an amount of shopping to be done, and
dressmakers to be consulted and employed before the great event of the
season came off. At length the important evening arrived and in the home
of Mr. Glossop, a wealthy and retired whiskey dealer, there was a
brilliant array of wealth and fashion. Could all the misery his liquor
had caused been turned into blood, there would have been enough to have
oozed in great drops from every marble ornament or beautiful piece of
frescoe that adorned his home, for that home with its beautiful
surroundings and costly furniture was the price of blood, but the glamor
of his wealth was in the eyes of his guests; and they came to be amused
and entertained and not to moralize on his ill-gotten wealth.
The wine flowed out in unstinted measures and some of the women so
forgot themselves as to attempt to rival the men in drinking. The
barrier being thrown down Charles drank freely, till his tones began to
thicken, and his eye to grow muddled, and he sat down near Jeanette and
tried to converse; but he was too much under the influence of liquor to
hold a sensible and coherent conversation.
"Oh! Charley you naughty boy, that wine has got into your head and you
don't know what you are talking about."
"Well, Miss Jenny, I b'lieve you're 'bout half-right, my head does feel
funny."
"I shouldn't wonder; mine feels rather dizzy, and Miss Thomas has gone
home with a sick headache, and I know what her headaches mean," said
Jeanette significantly.
"My head," said Mary Gladstone, "really feels as big as a bucket."
"And I feel real dizzy," said another.
"And so do I," said another, "I feel as if I could hardly stand, I feel
awful weak."
"Why girls, you! are all, all, tipsy, now just own right up, and be done
with it," said Charles Romaine.
"Why Charlie you are as good as a wizard, I believe we have all got too
much wine aboard: but we are not as bad as the girls of B.S., for they
succeeded in out drinking the men. I heard the men drank eight bottles
of wine, and that they drank sixteen."
Alas for these young people they were sporting upon the verge of a
precipice, but its slippery edge was concealed by flowers. They were
playing with the firebrands of death and thought they were Roman-candles
and harmless rockets.
"Good morning Belle," said Jeanette Roland to her cousin Belle as she
entered her cousin's sitting-room the morning after the party and found
Jeanette lounging languidly upon the sofa.
"Good morning. It is a lovely day, why are you not out enjoying the
fresh air? Can't you put on your things and go shopping with me? I think
you have excellent taste and I often want to consult it."
"Well after all then I am of some account in your eyes."
"Of course you are; who said you were not[?]"
"Oh! nobody only I had an idea that you thought that I was as useless as
a canary bird."
"I don't think that a canary bird is at all a useless thing. It charms
our ears with its song, and pleases our eye with its beauty, and I am a
firm believer in the utility of beauty--but can you, or rather will you
not go with me?"
"Oh Belle I would, but I am as sleepy as a cat."
"What's the matter?"
"I was up so late last night at Mrs. Glossop's party; but really it was
a splendid affair, everything was in the richest profusion, and their
house is magnificently furnished. Oh Belle I wish you could have been
there."
"I don't; there are two classes of people with whom I never wish to
associate, or number as my especial friends, and they are rum sellers
and slave holders."
"Oh! well, Mr. Glossop is not in the business now and what is the use of
talking about the past; don't be always remembering a man's sins against
him."
"Would you say the same of a successful pirate who could fare
sumptuously from the effects of his piracy?"
"No I would not; but Belle the cases is not at all parallel."
"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."
"Well Belle, I can't see the harm in it, I don't believe there was
another soul who refused except you and Mr. Freeman, and you are so
straightlaced, and he is rather green, just fresh from the country, it
won't take him long to get citified."
"Citified or countrified, I couldn't help admiring his strength of
principle which stood firm in the midst of temptation and would not
yield to the blandishments of the hour. And so you will not go out with
me this morning?"
"Oh! No Belle, I am too tired. Won't you excuse me?"
"Certainly, but I must go. Good morning."
"What a strange creature my cousin Belle is," said Jeanette, to herself
as Miss Gordon left the room. "She will never be like any one else. I
don't think she will ever get over my offering Mr. Romaine that glass
of wine, I wish she hadn't seen it, but I'll try and forget her and go
to sleep."
But Jeanette was not destined to have the whole morning for an unbroken
sleep. Soon after Bell's departure the bell rang and Charles Romaine was
announced, and weary as Jeanette was, she was too much interested in his
society to refuse him; and arraying herself in a very tasteful and
becoming manner, she went down to receive him in the parlor.