Jackson had a son, an excellent lad, possessing all his father’s good qualities, and none of his bad ones. He and young George had been at school together, and a friendship had arisen between them that promised to be enduring; the more so, that Esther Hammond and Henry Jackson were lovers—a secret, the discovery of which was at first very ill received by Hannah. That her Esther should marry the son of Jackson whom she hated, was not to be thought of. “There’s little reason to fear that Harry will take after his father, mother,” George would say. “Besides, you’d think it hard if any body made me suffer for father; and, for my part, I think it’s enough to cure any body of a love of liquor, to see how it disguises people who would be so different if they could leave it alone.” It was some time before this kind of argument prevailed with Hannah; but it had its effect at length, sustained as it was by the genuine merits of the candidate, by his evident abhorrence of his father’s vice, and by his dutiful attentions to his mother. So, by-and-by, he became a welcome visitor to Mrs. Hammond and her daughter; and, all things concurring, it was tacitly understood among them, that some day or other, when they were both old enough, and when Henry should be in a situation to maintain a family, Esther was to be his wife. This arrangement—now that she was satisfied of Harry Jackson’s good character—shed a gleam of comfort on Hannah’s dark path; for her path lay dark before her now. The host of the King’s Arms was never happy out of Hammond’s company; the truth being, that the unfortunate man had grown really fond of George. Hannah’s frowns and coldness could not keep him away; and if she, by persuasion or stratagem, contrived to detain her husband at home, Jackson invariably came in search of him. Then, besides all the other griefs and discomforts attending such a state of things, the business of the house began to decline. The respectable townspeople did not like to frequent an inn where the host was always intoxicated; and, to many who had known them in happier days, George Hammond’s bloated face, and Hannah’s pinched features were not pleasant to behold. If matters went on at this rate, pecuniary embarrassments were not unlikely to be added to her other afflictions; and her dread of this was materially increased by finding that Hammond was beginning to tamper with a small sum of money they had placed in the Tutton Bank, under a mutual agreement that it should remain there, untouched, until Esther’s marriage. All this misery she owed to Jackson, even to the last item in her troubles; for she discovered that the money had been drawn out to lend to him. Matters went on in this way from bad to worse. Mrs. Hammond was miserable, and Mrs. Jackson was breaking her heart, and the business of both houses was going to the dogs, when Hannah resolved on a last effort to avert the impending ruin.