o do as
others did, or expelled from the society; and swore that, next time he
showed himself, they would tell him as much, and, if he did not take the
warning, proceed to active measures. However, I befriended him on this
occasion, and recommended them to let him be for a while, intimating
that, with a little patience on our parts, he would soon come round
again. But, to be sure, it was rather provoking; for, though he refused
to drink like an honest Christian, it was well known to me that he kept a
private bottle of laudanum about him, which he was continually soaking
at--or rather, holding off and on with, abstaining one day and exceeding
the next--just like the spirits.

'One night, however, during one of our orgies--one of our high festivals,
I mean--he glided in, like the ghost in "Macbeth," and seated himself, as
usual, a little back from the table, in the chair we always placed for
"the spectre," whether it chose to fill it or not. I saw by his face
that he was suffering from the effects of an overdose of his insidious
comforter; but nobody spoke to him, and he spoke to nobody. A few
sidelong glances, and a whispered observation, that "the ghost was come,"
was all the notice he drew by his appearance, and we went on with our
merry carousals as before, till he startled us all by suddenly drawing in
his chair, and leaning forward with his elbows on the table, and
exclaiming with portentous solemnity,--"Well! it puzzles me what you can
find to be so merry about. What you see in life I don't know--I see only
the blackness of darkness, and a fearful looking for of judgment and
fiery indignation!"

'All the company simultaneously pushed up their glasses to him, and I set
them before him in a semicircle, and, tenderly patting him on the back,
bid him drink, and he would soon see as bright a prospect as any of us;
but he pushed them back, muttering,--

'"Take them away! I won't taste it, I tell you. I won't--I won't!" So
I handed them down again to the owners; but I saw that he followed them
with a glare of hungry regret as they departed. Then he clasped his
hands before his eyes to shut out the sight, and two minutes after lifted
his head again, and said, in a hoarse but vehement whisper,--

'"And yet I must! Huntingdon, get me a glass!"

'"Take the bottle, man!" said I, thrusting the brandy-bottle into his
hand--but stop, I'm telling too much,' muttered the narrator, startled at
the look I turned upon h