nk before we go!"

The two men stepped to the bar and drank. Then they lingered, each with
a lighted cigar, and finally withdrew--to proceed to the city? No. To
return to their room up-stairs, and renew their unequal contest. The
sixty dollars which Wilkinson had received were staked, and soon passed
over to his adversary. Rendered, now, desperate by his losses and the
brandy which inflamed his brain, he borrowed, once more, on his
due-bill--this time to the amount of several hundred dollars. His
ill-success continued.

It was nearly eleven o'clock, when Wilkinson started up from the table,
exclaiming, as he threw the cards upon the floor--

"Fool! fool! fool! One step more, and I am ruined. Carlton!" And he
fixed his eyes almost fiercely upon his companion.

"Carlton! I thought you my friend, but find, when it is almost too late
to profit by the discovery, that you are a tempter. Ay! and worse than
a tempter. Pure air and the bright sunshine! Is this your health for
mind and body? Oh! weak, weak, unstable one that I am! Poor Mary!" This
was said in a low, mournful, and scarcely audible voice. "Thus has my
promise to you vanished into thin air!"

As Wilkinson said this, he turned away and left the room. Carlton was
in no hurry to follow. When, at length, he came down, and made inquiry
for the one he had dealt by so treacherously, the man, who was shutting
the windows of the bar-room, and about locking up for the night,
replied that he had not seen him.

"Not seen him?" he asked, in a tone of surprise.

"No, sir. He didn't come in here."

The hostler was aroused from his sleeping position on a bench in the
corner, and directed by Carlton to bring out his buggy. During the time
he was away, the latter made a hurried search in and around the house.
Not finding the object thereof, he muttered, in an under tone, a few
wicked oaths; then, jumping into his vehicle, he put whip to his horse,
and dashed off towards the city. He had Wilkinson's due-bills in his
pocket for various sums, amounting, in all, to nearly two thousand
dollars!

CHAPTER VIII.

ALMOST motionless, with her sleeping babe upon her lap, sat Mrs.
Wilkinson for nearly half an hour after her husband left the house. She
saw nothing that was around her--heard nothing--felt nothing. Not even
the breathings of her sleeping infant reached her ear; nor was she
conscious of the pressure of its body against her own. Fixed in a
dreamy, inward gaze wer