While he was thus occupying his mind with
this subject, his hands the while folding up a
piece of silk goods, he looked up at a footstep,
when all the blood in his heart rushed to his temples;
while a sensation of surprise and pleasure
made his pulse bound! It was the beautiful glove-purchaser!
Many times had he conjurod up that
face and wondered who she was, while the lingering
pleasure he took in dwelling upon it in
memory, told him how deeply it had impressed
him. Yet he might soon have forgotten her, had
she not again appeared; but now that he beheld
her once more, all the teelings of the day previous
came back with new intensity. He in vain made
efforts to suppress the emotion of pleasure that
glowed on his cheek, and sparkled in his eyes, as
he beheld her. But tempering his pulse as well
as he could, be approached her with his eyes
dropped to the floor.

Ellen Emery smiled, and was conscious of her
triumph. She seemed to enjoy for a moment his
embarrassment, so rare in a young man, at least
of such young men as she had known, as Ralph
Mosley, for instance, and she gazed on his face
with a deeper interest than her object could create,
which was indicated by a thoughtful, tender
expression in her eyes, and a deeper tone of feeling
in her voice.

`I wish to purchase—really, I forget what I do
want! Oh, have you beautiful laces?'

The boxes of laces were handed down by Harry,
who could not keep his eyes from her face
though they fell every time she would look up.

`This is pretty for cuffs,' she said, laying a
piece upon her truly lovely wrist, and scanning
its effect, while Harry was admiring the hand.

`What is the price of this?' she asked, flashing
her brilliant eyes up into his face an instant, and
then dropping the lids over them like the shadow
of a dark cloud.

`Two dollars,' he said examining the mark,
and at the same time stealing a look at her mouth.

Alas, poor Harry! the poison is creeping slowly
into thy heart.

`That is not high, it is so richly wrought. Do
you go into society much, Mr. Harefoot?'

`Very little,' he said, marvelling at her social
manner.

`You should do so! A young man with your
face and figure—but what am I saying to a perfect
stranger,' she said, looking down with well played
confusion. `But you don't seem like a stranger
to me, Mr. Harefoot.'

`Henry,' asked Walter Berry, from the farther
end of the store; `will you please tell me what
af stands for on the goods?'

`Wait a moment, and I will give you an alphabet
key.

`Henry! what a pretty name! Then your
name is Henry?' she asked, with a most attractive
frankness of manner.

`Yes,' he replied blushing.

`Well, Henry,—for so I will call you, if you
won't be angry with me,' she said, with a captivating
naivete that was irresistible, `you ought to
go into company.'

`I have little time,' he said, his voice subdued
to the first low note approaching confidence.

`You have your evenings, certainly. This lace
is very pretty.'

At the word `evenings' he thought of his mother's
injunctions to keep at home; then flashed
upon him her caution about forming acquaintances
with females who were strangers to him, `no
matter if they glittered in laces and rustled in
silks.' He became embarrassed, glanced at her,
and asked himself if such a beautiful, modest,
pleasant young lady could be one whom his mother
had warned him to flee. But she rustled in no
silks, nor, though looking at laces, did she glitter
in them; for her attire was a plain straw cottage,
and a snow white dress, perfectly fitting her perfect
shape.

The idea had no sooner come into his mind than
he banished it; for he was so much impressed
with her beauty, and pleased with her manner,
that had she `glittered in silks and laces,' he
would have blinded himself to this interdicted
costume, reluctant to be compelled to avoid one
he believed all that her sex might envy, his own
adore.

`I will take three yards of this lace, Henry,'
she said, playfully winding it about her finger.—
`Where do you go this evening?'

`I have an engagement at the Exchange,' he
said, with a slight emphasis on the name of the
fashionable Coffee House.

`I hope it is no dissipation—no champagne supper,
' she replied. `Ah, you gay young gentlemen
are apt to be very wild!'

`I assure you, Miss—(what would be not
have given to know Miss who?) that I am only
going there to see a gentleman. Besides, I have
never entered into any of the dissipations of the
town, and beg you will do me the justice to think
so,' answered Henry with animation, desirous to
have the good opinion of so beautiful a girl, who
seemed to like him so well, and for whom he could
not conceal his own deep admiration.

`I did not think otherwise, Henry,' she answered
earnestly. `But where have I left my
purse!' she exclaimed, looking in her reticule as
he handed to her the three yards of lace he had
measured off, and put up in a shop bill. `I must
have left it—yes, I remember, I called at Mrs.
Otley's house in Colonnade Row, and gave it to
her dear babe to play with, and must have left it
in the cradle. I am so mortified! I am too tired
to go back there.'

`I will send Walter for it,' said Harry eagerly.

`No, don't trouble him, and you will be alone
in the store. I will take the lace another time,
though I wanted it very much this afternoon.'

`You can take it, and pay another day,' said
Harry with imprudent haste. `I should regret
you should be disappointed.'

But to purchase the lace was not her intention.
She only wished to strengthen the acquaintance,
and to try the temper of his character. She found
it what she had suspected—open and unsuspecting;
one which would lead its possessor astray,
if beauty allured, and passion impelled. She did
not wish to involve him in difficulty at the outset,
by his indiscretion, and was therefore firm in
declining to take it. This refusal confirmed Harry's
opinion that she was as worthy as she was

[figure description] Page 041.[end figure description]

beautiful; and when, with a smile and a bow, she
left the store, as Stanwood entered, he resolved if
he ever saw her again, not to leave her till he had
ascertained all about her. Harry's heart was not
interested! his vanity was gratified; he was flattered
by her notice, and bewitched by her beauty.
On her part, this second interview had given her
the knowledge of her own heart, and betrayed to
her that he whom she came deliberately to ruin,
had become the master of her heart, the deep
fountains of which the sensual Mosley had never
unlocked. She felt that henceforth she required
no resort to art for weapons, which love would
now more readily furnish.

At a few minutes past eight o'clock, the same
evening, Lynch reached the store which he found
closed, and Harry waiting for him. He took his
arm, and they went together to the Exchange.—
Silsby was in a handsome, lighted parlor opposite
to his chamber, awaiting him with Mosley, who
had planned that Silsby should become acquainted
with the milliner's pretty apprentice, through
Harefoot's introduction; for he well knew his
own would not pass current. It was for this end
that Silsby was awaiting Harry's arrival.

`Is is already quarter past,' he said, looking at
a richly chased gold watch. `Are you sure Lynch
will fetch him?'

`Yes. He is too anxious to know you, Bob, to
let any thing prevent his coming. I told him you
were desirons of knowing him! He bit at once.
You must get his confidence by treating him civily,
and he will be of use to you.

`I'll invite him to drive out in my stanhope
with me to Fresh Pond, day after to-morrow.

`That is Sunday, and he is puritanic.'

`I will manage that. Ah, there he comes.'

`Sir, there is Mr. Lynch and his friend below,'
said a servant, entering.

`Show them up. Now for the little milliner!
I passed there to day, and I never saw such a
lovely little gypsy. But I must break ground
carefully, I see by her eye!'

`Yes, you can do nothing without being presented
to her by some one she knows. Harefoot
is the very man, if you can get him to serve
you.'

`Leave that to me. Ah, Ned, how are ye?—
Glad to see you.'

`How are ye, Silsby. Let me make you acquainted
with my particular friend, Henry Hareoot.
'

`Mr. Harefoot I am glad to see you,' said Silsby,
rising and shaking him heartily by the hand,
and leading him to a seat. `I have solicited the
pleasure of knowing you, and feel happy that you
have done me the honor to call.'

The ease and cordiality of his reception, the
brilliancy of the apartment, the richness of the
furniture, and elegant opulence pervading everything
that he beheld, not a little dazzled him; but
what embarrased him most of all was, that he recognised
in Silsby, the gentleman whom he had
sat next to at his memorable dinner, and whose
wine he had helped himself to with such nonchalence.
A second glance at his countenance,
however, told him he was not recognized in return,
and he became re-assured, though at the mo
ment he felt like retreating, or hiding himself.—
The hurried views he had had of Silsby with his
hat on when he had seen him riding were not sufficient
for him to identify him; but now that he
saw him with his hat off, he did not fail to make
the appalling recognition. Although Silsby betrayed
no sign of having met him before, he distinctly
recollected the features of his neighbor of
the `cider.'

A few minutes were passed in general conversation,
when Silsby proposed a game at cards.
Harry knew one suit of cards from another,
but had never played. He blushed while he confessed.

`Never mind, we will soon teach you,' said
Lynch; and he drew his chair to a round table,
in the middle of which a servant had laid a pack
of cards. Harry felt he was doing wrong in yielding,
but he had not the resolution to refuse, and
he did not like to give offence to such a `rich
young man' as Robert Silsby. Thus his want
of moral courage, and his respect for money,
combined, led him into acting against his sense of
right.

The cutting for `deal,' the `dealing,' the `trump'
and the `lead,' were all a mystery to Harry, but
Mosley kindly explained them to him, so that he
soon understood them. After a little showing he
was enabled to lead off with confidence, and play
his cards with some freedom. The game was
`whist.' He soon became interested in it; and
although he made rather awkward work at dealing,
vainly trying in the feat to imitate the rapid
and graceful manner in which Lynch threw off
the cards, he proved much better than a `dummy'
to Silsby, who was his partner; and so they played
half an hour, when Silsby desired Mosley to
pull the bell, though he himself was nearest to it.
But rich young men have privileges.

`Charles,' he said to the colored attendant, as
he stood bowing respectfully in the door, `tell the
bar-keeper to send up four nectars—hot.'

`Yes, saar,' answered Charles, disappearing.

`Who deals? Your turn, Ned,' said Silsby.—
`Well, Harefoot, how do you like the game?'

`I must confess it is exciting, though it requires
practice to understand its principles. It is a game
of calculation. I thought before that cards were
never played without gambling, and I felt alarmed
for my rustic propriety when I heard you propose
them, he said, laughing; for the society in which
he found himself had adapted itself, for various
reasons, to his humor, and so he was pleased with
himself, with them, and was altogether in a fine
flow of spirits. Much of his reserve of manner
had worn off, and his companions were surprised
to discover, that though he knew little of cards,
he was witty, social—in cant phrase, `a capital
fellow.'

The `nectar' appeared in four goblets, in the
shape of whiskey punches, hot, and alluring both
to the eye and smell. A little plate of crackers
was also on the waiter.

`Hand them round, Charley!' said Silsby.—
Harefoot, take one. You will find it delicious.—
Ned—Ralph, help yourselves.'

Harry, with the remembrance of last night, and
recollection of his remorse and resolutions, had

[figure description] Page 042.[end figure description]

hesitated when the servant held the waiter to him;
but not wishing to appear so singular as to decline,
he took the glass, and set it beside his cards. The
odor, as it ascended to his nostrils, was truly
tempting. He had never conceived any thing
more delightful! Yet he firmly resolved in his
mind to withstand more than a simple taste for
courtesy's sake.

`What is this nectar, Mr. Silsby?' he asked,
with such simplicity that the others believed, till
they reflected an instant upon his ignorance
of such matters, that he was quizzing.

`It is a compound of delectables, ambient as liquid
topaz, fragrant as jasmine, and inspiring as
the waters of—of—of—what is that Greek spring
we used to know at school, Mosley?'

`Maranthon?'

`No.'

`Helicon,' said Harry.

`That's it. Now you know what a whiskey—
I mean a nectar is, Harefoot, eh?'

Harry knew he was quizzed, but said nothing,
resolving to drink no more, whatever it was; for
his mother's warning lay close in his heart, where
he had treasured up all her advice. The game
advanced, and grew more intensely exciting, and
discovered to Harry that he had a natural propensity
for card playing, the occasion having been
hitherto wanting to call it out. In the intervals
of dealing, each had sipped his `nectar,' and Harry,
ere he was sensible of it, found he had been
sipping also, till he had drank half in the goblet.
The effect of it was also more apparent to the
others than himself. His eye was brighter, his
manner bolder, his voice more earnest, and his
whole demeanor elevated several degrees above
the usual temperature. He laid his cards down
on the board with an emphasis, and even disputed
about the priority of a deal. A second series of
whiskey-punches was ordered, and four empty
glasses replaced upon the salver. Ten o'clock
struck, and Haray had drank two whiskey-punches,
and had by this time become somewhat noisy
with the exhileration of his ideas!

`Suppose we play `poker,” said Mosley.

`Agreed,' responded Harry, who was innocent
of the knowledge of any poker but the firepoker.

`Suppose we bet a half,' said Lynch.

`Done,' cried Harry, thumping his fist down
on the table till the glasses rung again.

`Let's have some of my old brand champagne
first,' said Silsby. `Lynch pull that bell.'

The champagne was brought, glasses were given
to each, the wire was cut, the cork flew, and
sparkling like a fountain of light, the tall glasses
were filled to the bubbling brim.

`Here,s to beauty,' said Silsby, lifting his
glass.

`Especially milliner's apprentices,' said Mosley
who was a little excited.

`Beauty it is, repeated Lynch, drinking off
his champagne, and setting down his glass with
a sigh.

`Beauty and miller's apprentices, cried Harry,
quaffing the delicate pink-hued wine.

`Miller's be —,' said Mosley; `Milliner's
it is.

`I say, Mosley, I consider that personal—I'll
allow no man to correct me! Don't you think I
know a milliner from a miller!' retorted Harry,
with drunken spirit.

`Peace, gentlemen! Silence, Ralph!' cried
Silsby, thumping on the table with a champagne
glass, and knocking the bottom off. `How do you
like that cider, eh, Harefoot? Don't you think it
better than that you drank in the dining room a
few months ago.

Harry stared at the speaker with consternation.
Mortification and shame sobered him instantly.
He dropped his eyes in confusion, and sat silent
and gloomy.

`Pshaw, man,' said Silsby, laughing; `it was
nothing to cry about; but a capital joke. By
George, it is too good to be lost.'

`Tell it, tell it!' cried Mosley and Lynch in the
same breath.

Silsby then related the incident as it occurred,
but with such perfect good humor, and it was
laughed at with such cheerful merriment by the
others, that Harry not only took no offence, but
joined in the laugh, and explained, in a lively
manner, his elation at the discovery of the use of
the long glasses set beside his plate.

`And that was really wine, then?' he added,
with a smile.

`Yes, champagne! The same we have been
drinking.

`And is this wine, also?'

`You didn't think it was cider?'

`Upon my soul I did till this moment.'

Loud and long was the laugh that followed
this ingenuous confession. After the hilarious
uproar had a little subsided, Silsby opened another
bottle, and said, turning to him.

`Now, Harefoot, as you took wine with me
without asking, do me the honor to drink with
me now by special invitation. Hold here, and let
me fill your glass.'

Harry, who was now quite sober, would have
declined, but the circumstances under which the
request was made, did not admit of a refusal.—
He therefore let him fill his glass, and drank with
him.

`A bead!' cried Silsby, inverting his glass and
catching the last drop on his thumb nail.

`A bead,' repeated Harefoot, who had never
heard the term before, yet instantly comprehended
it; and finishing the wine, he turned up his
glass in a like manner.

They now began to play again with a better understanding
of our hero's character, and he of
theirs. The little incident that had passed had
placed them on a better footing of social equality.
Each was in good humor with his fellow. Poker,
a notorious gambling game was now introduced,
and Harry's last glass of champagne having made
him supremely indifferent to any moral dictation
from the wounded monitor within, he entered into
the play with spirit, so soon as its principle was
explained to him, and laid down his half dollar
(nearly all the money he had in the world) with
the full consciousness of wrong doing, but recklessly
stifling the reproaches of his conscience.
He seemed to be impressed with, and led by, that
reckless feeling which suggests that, having

[figure description] Page 043.[end figure description]

given line so far to temptation, it were the same
to let indulgence run the full length of her tether.

The hours flew swiftly, and unheeded, till the
end of their playing, when Silslby, looking at his
watch, announced to the appalled ears of Harry
that it was twelve o'clock. The deep tongue of
the Old South at the same instant, bore testimony
to its truth.

`You owe me seventeen dollars and a half,
Harefoot, remember,' said Silsby. `And Mosley,
here is your five.'

`And you owe me six, Harry,' added Mosley,
pocketing his winnings.

`And two dollars to me,' continued Ned.

`And you, Ned, are indebted to me eight—no
nine,' cried Silsby, examining the scores.

Harry listened with consternation. The excitement
of play—the elevation of the wine had
gone, and left him the cool, sad contemplation of
the fruits of the evening's enjoyment—happiness
dearly bought. His mind was stunned at the
idea of having incurred a debt of twenty-five
dollars—and that a gambling debt. He stood silent
and sad with the bitterness of that moment's
reflection. To this was added a scarcely less
painful evil—the late hour he was abroad! It was
the first time he had ever been out after nine.
How should he get in—how should he conceal his
late hours, or excuse himself to the inmates! how
to Mr. Cushing, if he should be informed of it!
`But how,' he groaned inwardly, `how shall I
ever be reconciled to myself—how forgive myself
for this folly.'

`Why, man, you look as melancholly as Death
in the Primmer,' said Lynch, slapping him on the
shoulder. `Come, take a glass of brandy and
water. It will make you a new man.'

`Never mind the money, Harefoot,' said Silsby,
`if it is not convenient. Pay me when it is;
or, perhaps, some other time you may turn the
scales. Come, fellows, let us charge once round
before we separate.'

The decanter of brandy went round, and Harry
suffered the tumbler Silsby had placed in his
hand to be filled without speaking. They touched
their glasses, and each drank off his parting
cup, Harry quaffings his down with a sort of a
desperate hope of finding in it relief from his painful
reflections.

It was now proposed by Lynch that they should
all go together to O'Bruce's and get a supper of
oysters, and then see Harefoot home. Harry
consented to go with them, for he felt now too
heart-wretched to regard, for that night, any farther
consequences that might ensue.

They navigated down stairs to the court door,
with no little noise of stumbling boots and clattering
sticks, to the consternation, or wrath of
sundry sleepers, whose doors they passed on their
way. The night was exceedingly brilliant, with
a clear saphire vault, in which the star sparkled
with unusual splendor. For a moment the beauty
and stillness of the hour awed them. But
their brains were too much under the influence
of the brandy they had just drank, for the sweet
and holy influences of night and heaven to affect
them long. Four abreast, arm locked in arm,
each with a lighted cigar in his mouth, a stick
under his arm, and keeping tramp-pace, they
took their way into State street, and along the
shadows of the ancient State House into Washington
street, up which they turned. As they
reeled on, each a support to the other, Silsby
broke out singing `Bruce's Address,' when all
struck in with such a medley of horrid discords,
by way of choral accompaniment, that a watchman
who was quietly dozing on the corner by
Cummings & Hilliard's book store, was waked
out of his sleep by the noise, and crossed the street
to them.

`You must walk quietly, gentleman,' he said
respectfully.

`I have a right to sing. There's no law against
a man's singing when he is in a mood for it,
Charlie,' responded Silsby—
`Scotts' wha'ha' wi' Wallace—'

`I say you must not sing and disturb the
streets,' said Charlie, peremptorily.

`Sing away, Silsby,' said Harry, who, with
wine and brandy, and novel excitement, was
quite as ripe for any thing, as a young man would
wish to be; and in a loud tone of defiance Harry
continued,
`Scotts' whom Bruce has often led,'

`Go it, Harefoot, that's your sort,' cried hiscompanions.
`We'll whip Charlie, if he is'nt
d—d civil.'

`Yes—we are not to be stopped in walking the
streets by an infernal watchman,' said Silsby.
`We are gentlemen,—
`Scotts' wa'ha' wi—'

Here the watchman laid his hand upon his collar,
when Harry, adding in a loud tone,
`Welcome to your gory bed,' deliberately knocked the watchman over into the
gutter, and releasing Silsby from his hold.

`Now, fellows, we must fight or run,' said
Lynch, as the watchman clambered to his feet,
and sprung his rattle.'

`Run it,' said Silsby, `for the Exchange!'

At a rate of speed, no one who had seen them
reeling along four abreast but a few minutes before,
would have believed of them, they fled down
the lane from Washington street, through a dark
alley, into Exchange place, pursued by three
watchmen, springing their rattles, he who had
been knocked down, foremast. By fortunate
chance the Coffee House door was yet un-barred
and Silsby, throwing it open, got them in, and
barred it, just as the watchman touched the curb-stone
before it.

`We are safe now, but have lost our oystersupper,
' said Lynch. `Harry, you gave him a
scientific flooring.'

`Come to my room, boys,' said Silsby. `It
will not be safe for you to go home to night.—
Harry, you shall share my bed! By George, you
are a brave fellow in a spree?'

`Harefoot's good stuff, and no mistake,' responded
Mosley, as they ascended to his room.

Harry was not sorry to remain all night, knowing
he could not get in at his boarding-house; and,

[figure description] Page 044.[end figure description]

after being assured that he should be waked by
Silsby's servant at six, he retired, though not till
they had taken another `brandy and water' all
round to `make them sleep.'

But sleep visited not Henry's senses till cockcrowing,
when he sunk into an uneasy slumber,
from which he was called at six o'clock by the
black servant stealing into the darkened chamber,
and softly rousing him.

He rose with a sensation in his head as if it
were hooped with an iron band; with a parched
tongue that loathed and sickened at its own taste;
with fevered hands, and painful eyes; with a
conscience ringing its loud censures; and a soul
weighed down with a sense of guilt, upon which
horror, remorse, and despair, sat like a moral Cerberus
guarding forever the passage back to hope,
happiness, and peace.