how muddled his eye is--but he is
approaching--listen to his utterance, don't you notice how thick it is?
Now if on his wedding night, he can not abstain, I have very grave fears
for Jeanette's future."

"Perhaps you are both right, but I never looked at things in that light
before, and I know that a magnificent fortune can melt like snow in the
hands of a drunken man."

"I wish you much joy," rang out a dozen voices, as Jeanette approached
them. "Oh Jeanette, you just look splendid! and Mr. Romaine, oh he is so
handsome." "Oh Jeanette what's to hinder you from being so happy?" "But
where is Mr. Romaine? we have missed him for some time." "I don't know,
let me seek my husband." "Isn't that a mouthful?" said Jeanette
laughingly disengaging herself from the merry group, as an undefined
sense of apprehension swept over her. Was it a presentiment of coming
danger? An unspoken prophecy to be verified by bitter tears, and lonely
fear that seemed for a moment to turn life's sweetness into bitterness
and gall. In the midst of a noisy group, in the dining room, she found
Charles drinking the wine as it gave its color aright in the cup. She
saw the deep flush upon his cheek, and the cloudiness of his eye, and
for the first time upon that bridal night she felt a shiver of fear as
the veil was suddenly lifted before her unwilling eye; and half
reluctantly she said to herself, "Suppose after all my cousin Belle was
right."

Chapter XVI

"Good morning! Mr. Clifford," said Joe Gough, entering the store of Paul
Clifford, the next day after he joined the Reform Club. "I have heard
that you wanted some one to help you, and I am ready to do anything to
make an honest living."

"I am very sorry," said Paul, "but I have just engaged a young man
belonging to our Club to come this morning."

Joe looked sad, but not discouraged, and said, "Mr. Clifford, I want to
turn over a new leaf in my life, but everyone does not know that. Do you
know of any situation I can get? I have been a book-keeper and a
salesman in the town of C., where I once lived, but I am willing to
begin almost anywhere on the ladder of life, and make it a
stepping-stone to something better."

There was a tone of earnestness in his voice, and an air of
determination, in his manner that favorably impressed Paul Clifford and
he replied,----

"I was thinking of a friend of mine who wants a helping hand; but it may
not be, after all, the kind of work you prefer.