s enemy.

At the end of his second term in Congress the people of his district
rejected him. They could tolerate a certain degree of drunkenness and
demoralization in their representative, but Ridley had fallen too low.
They would have him no longer, and so he was left out in the party
nomination and sent back into private life hurt, humiliated and in
debt. No clients awaited his return. His law-office had been closed for
years, and there was little encouragement to open it again in the old
place. For some weeks after his failure to get the nomination Ridley
drank more desperately than ever, and was in a state of intoxication
nearly all the while. His poor wife, who clung to him through all with
an unwavering fidelity, was nearly broken-hearted. In vain had
relatives and friends interposed. No argument nor persuasion could
induce her to abandon him. "He is my husband," was her only reply, "and
I will not leave him."

One night he was brought home insensible. He had fallen in the street
where some repairs were being made, and had received serious injuries
which confined him to the house for two or three weeks. This gave time
for reflection and repentance. The shame and remorse that filled his
soul as he looked at his sad, pale wife and neglected children, and
thought of his tarnished name and lost opportunities, spurred him to
new and firmer resolves than ever before made. He could go forward no
longer without utter ruin. No hope was left but in turning back. He
must set his face in a new direction, and he vowed to do so, promising
God on his knees in tears and agony to hold, by his vow sacredly.

A new day had dawned. As soon as Mr. Ridley was well enough to be out
again he took counsel of friends, and after careful deliberation
resolved to leave his native town and remove to the city. A lawyer of
fine ability, and known to the public as a clear thinker and an able
debater, he had made quite an impression on the country during his
first term in Congress; neither he nor his friends had any doubt as to
his early success, provided he was able to keep himself free from the
thraldom of old habits.

A few old friends and political associates made up a purse to enable
him to remove to the city with his family. An office was taken and
three rooms rented in a small house, where, with his wife and two
children, one daughter in her fourteenth year, life was started anew.
There was no room for a servant in this small establishm