, but that unutterable hopelessness which
we feel when looking upon the moral debasement of one we have
respected, esteemed, and loved."

"I am sure, aunt, that I will not attempt to gainsay all that. If there
is any condition in life that seems to me most deplorable and
heart-breaking, it is the condition of a drunkard's wife. But, so far
as Edward Lee is concerned, I am sure there does not exist the remotest
danger."

"There is always danger where there is indulgence. The man who will
drink one glass a day now, will be very apt to drink two glasses in a
twelvemonth; and so go on increasing, until his power over himself is
gone. Many, very many, do not become drunkards until they are old men;
but, sooner or later, in nine cases out of ten, a man who allows
himself to drink habitually, I care not how moderately at first, will
lose his self-control."

"Still, aunt, I cannot for a moment bring myself to apprehend danger in
the case of Edward."

"So have hundreds said before you. So did I once say, Alice. But years
of heart-aching misery told how sadly I was mistaken!"

The feelings of Alice were touched by this allusion. She had never
before dreamed that her uncle, who died while she was but a little
girl, had been a drunkard. Still, nothing that her aunt said caused her
to entertain even a momentary doubt of Edward Lee. She felt that he had
too much of the power of principle in his character ever to be carried
away by the vice of intemperance.

Edward Lee had offered himself in marriage to Alice Liston, and it was
on the occasion of her mentioning this to her aunt that the
conversation just riven occurred. It had, however, no effect upon the
mind of Alice. She loved Edward Lee tenderly, end, therefore, had every
confidence in him. They were, consequently, married, and commenced life
with prospects bright and flattering. But Edward continued to use
intoxicating drinks in moderate quantities every day. And, while the
taste for it was forming, he was wholly unconscious of danger. He would
as readily have believed himself in danger of murdering his wife, as in
danger of becoming a drunkard. He was a young merchant in a good
business when married, and able to put his young wife in possession of
a beautifully furnished house and all required domestic attendance, so
as to leave her but a very small portion of care.

Like the passage of a delightful dream were the first five years of her
wedded life. No one was ever hap