You must be mistaken about that," said Mr. Birtwell, evidently
disturbed at this communication.

"I wish to Heaven that I were! But the fact was too apparent. Blanche
saw it, and tried to get him out of the supper-room. He acted in the
silliest kind of a way, and mortified her dreadfully, poor child!"

"Such things will happen sometimes," said Mr. Birtwell. "Young men like
Ellis don't always know how much they can bear." His voice was in a
lower key and a little husky.

"It happens too often with Ellis," replied his wife, "and I'm beginning
to feel greatly troubled about it."

"Has it happened before?"

"Yes; at Mrs. Gleason's, only last week. He was loud and boisterous in
the supper-room--so much so that I heard a lady speak of his conduct as
disgraceful."

"That will never do," exclaimed Mr. Birtwell, betraying much
excitement. "He will have to change all this or give up Blanche. I
don't care what his family is if he isn't all right himself."

"It is easier to get into trouble than out of it," was replied. "Things
have gone too far between them."

"I don't believe it. Blanche will never throw herself away on a man of
bad habits."

"No; I do not think she will. But there may be, in her view, a very
great distance between an occasional glass of wine too much at an
evening party and confirmed bad habits. We must not hope to make her
see with our eyes, nor to take our judgment of a case in which her
heart is concerned. Love is full of excuses and full of faith. If Ellis
Whitford should, unhappily, be overcome by this accursed appetite for
drink which is destroying so many of our most promising young men,
there is trouble ahead for her and for us."

"Something must be done about it. We cannot let this thing go on," said
Mr. Birtwell, in a kind of helpless passion. "A drunkard is a beast.
Our Blanche tied to a beast! Ugh! Ellis must be talked to. I shall see
him myself. If he gets offended, I cannot help it. There's too much at
stake--too much, too much!"

"Talking never does much in these cases," returned Mrs. Birtwell,
gloomily. "Ellis would be hurt and offended."

"So far so good. He'd be on guard at the next party."

"Perhaps so. But what hope is there for a young man in any danger of
acquiring a love of liquor as things now are in our best society? He
cannot always be on guard. Wine is poured for him everywhere. He may go
unharmed in his daily walks through the city though thousands of
drinking-saloons