50 THE FIRST GLASS OF WINE

 

. Would you run the risk of becoming like
the “creature { have been describing to
you?”

‘*No, indeed, mother,” said Clare. «I
would rather die now, while I am a boy,
than live to grow up, if I — I shee
ever be like that.” |

—“*Then, my boy, let ardent spirits in
every form entirely alone. Touch mot,
taste not, handle not. You have taken your
first class of wine this afternoon ;-"see to it
that you never take the second.”

‘<I never wili touch wine again while I
live,” said Clare, and Hal immediately.

bound himself by the same resolution.

ei