62 DIGGING A GRAVE —

from drink. It was the active agent in mur-
| der — the instigator of all crime in her
class. But great as was her distress at
Terence’s Z misfortune,” love — the love that.
springs up in the heart of every true woman,
no matter how sinful or unlovely the object
‘is in other eyes— furnished many apologies
for him; “he was over-persuaded, 7. over-—
taken ; >”? she was certain it was the first time
he ever touched a drop in the morning. But
she would wait, she would watch, and she
would never marry him unless he had kept
the pledge unbroken for six months. But:
onus packslidings did fit impress her
with the same dismay, as the scene she |
had witnessed in Woburn Place. She under-
stood perfectly how poor men and women in
her own sphere were tempted by °“ the drop ;”

and once beguiled into the habit, how glass —
followed glass, until the grave Pegey talked _
of was dug and filled. She had seen how