inson, a good deal excited by the struggle between
affection and duty on the one side, and appetite and inclination on the
other, were touched and softened by the incident, and he was about
entering his house when the approaching form of a man, a short distance
in advance, caught his eye, and he paused until he came up.

"Elbridge! The very one I wished to see!" he exclaimed, in a low voice,
as he extended his hand and grasped that of his friend. "I've just been
to your house. Did you forget that I was to call around?"

"I didn't understand you to say, certainly, that you would call, or I
should have made it a point to be at home. But no matter. All in good
time. I'm on my way home now, and you will please return with me."

"I don't know about that," said Wilkinson, who could not forget his
promise to his wife. "I told Mary, when I went out, that I would only
be gone half an hour, and that time has expired already."

"Oh, never mind," returned the other, lightly. "She'll forgive you,
I'll be bound. Tell her that you came home, in all obedience to her
wishes, but that I met you at your own door, and carried you off in
spite of yourself."

And as Elbridge said this, he drew his arm within that of Wilkinson,
and the two men went chatting away.

Elbridge was fond of good wine, and always kept a few choice bottles on
hand. Wilkinson knew this; and, if he had looked narrowly into his
heart on the present occasion, he would have discovered that the wine
of his friend had for him a stronger attraction than his company.

As the latter had anticipated, wine and cigars were produced
immediately on their arrival at the house of Elbridge; and in the
exhilaration of the one and the fumes of the other, he soon forgot his
lonely, troubled wife and sick child at home.

A friend or two dropped in, in the course of half an hour; and then a
second bottle of wine was uncorked, and glasses refilled with its
sparkling contents.

The head of Wilkinson was not very strong. A single glass of wine
generally excited him, and two or three proved, always, more than he
could bear. It was so on this occasion; and when, at eleven o'clock, he
passed forth from the house of his friend, it was only by an effort
that he could walk steadily. The cool night air, as it breathed upon
his heated brow, partially sobered him, and his thoughts turned towards
his home. A sigh and the act of striking his hand upon his forehead
marked the effect of this tra