new dress, for I have
nothing fit to appear in."

The shadow swept off Mr. Ridley's face.

"All right," he returned. "I received a fee of fifty dollars to-day,
and you shall have every cent; of it."

In the week that intervened Mrs. Ridley made herself ready for the
party; but had she been preparing for a funeral, her heart could
scarcely have been heavier. Fearful dreams haunted her sleep, and
through the day imagination would often draw pictures the sight of
which made her cry out in sudden pain and fear. All this she concealed
from her husband, and affected to take a pleased interest in the coming
entertainment.

Mrs. Ridley was still a handsome woman, and her husband felt the old
pride warming his bosom when he saw her again among brilliant and
attractive women and noted the impression she made. He watched her with
something of the proud interest a mother feels for a beautiful daughter
who makes her appearance in society for the first time, and his heart
beat with liveliest pleasure as he noticed the many instances in which
she attracted and held people by the grace of her manner and the charm
of her conversation.

"God bless her!" he said in his heart fervently as the love he bore her
warmed into fresher life and moved him with a deeper tenderness, and
then he made for her sake a new vow of abstinence and set anew the
watch and ward upon his appetite. And he had need of watch and ward.
The wine-merchant's bill for that evening's entertainment was over
eight hundred dollars, and men and women, girls and boys, all drank in
unrestrained freedom.

Mrs. Ridley, without seeming to do so, kept close to her husband while
he was in the supper-room, and he, as if feeling the power of her
protecting influence, was pleased to have her near. The smell of wine,
its sparkle in the glasses, the freedom and apparent safety with which
every one drank, the frequent invitations received, and the little
banter and half-surprised lifting of the eyebrows that came now and
then upon refusal were no light draught on Mr. Ridley's strength.

"Have you tried this sherry, Mr. Ridley?" said the gentlemanly host,
taking a bottle from the supper-table and filling two glasses. "It is
very choice." He lifted one of the glasses as he spoke and handed it to
his guest. There was a flattering cordiality in his manner that made
the invitation almost irresistible, and moreover he was a prominent and
influential citizen whose favorable considera