"Shall I go up, Gertrude, my dear?" said Mrs Hampton. "If you would not mind. He may, perhaps, be a little unwell." "To be sure, my dear. I'll go." The lawyer's wife left the room, and without a moment's hesitation walked along the passage to the study, entered and looked round. "Yes," she said to herself, as she took up the whiskey decanter, and held it at arm's length. "How temperate and self-denying we are. Essence of sick headache, and he has drunk every drop." To give colour to Mrs Hampton's theory, besides the empty condition of the decanter, a peculiar odour of spirits filled the room, causing the old lady's nostrils to dilate, and the corners of her lips to go down as she hurried out. "And they hardly ever will open a window," she muttered, as she stood in the hall, hesitating. "But I said I would go up," she continued, and ascending quickly she paused before the door of the bedroom she sought. "Mr Harrington!" she cried, as she gave a few sharp raps with her bony knuckles. No answer. "Mr Harrington!" The taps were louder, but there was no reply. "I thought as much," she muttered. "Broken out again, and in a regular drunkard's sleep. No; it's an insult to sober people's rest to call it sleep--stupor. Oh, my poor girl, my poor girl! If I could only save you from being this dreadful man's wife." "Mr Harrington!" she cried again, after a pause; but all was still. Then the taps she had previously given upon the door became heavy thumps. "Mr Harrington, are you coming down to breakfast?" "Is anything the matter, ma'am?" said the old housekeeper coming slowly up the stairs. "Yes, Mrs Denton; no, Mrs Denton; yes, Mrs Denton. I mean nothing serious, but it's very dreadful." The old housekeeper shook her head; and the tears stood in her eyes as she walked to the end of the wide passage, and descended to the embayed window looking upon the garden, where she used her apron to flick off some white powdery dust from the sill. "Yes, ma'am," she said, "it is very dreadful. I know what you mean. Poor dear master liked his two or three glasses of port after his dinner, but that was all. Unless any one was ill you never saw a drop of spirits about the place, while now it's brandy and whiskey, and soda and seltzer, as is a pair of shams, not to make the spirits weaker, but to coax people on to drink more." "You think the same as I do then, Denton?" whispered Mrs Hampton. "It don't take any thinking, ma'am. Look at his nose and his cheeks. People don't have those public-house signs on their fronts without going very often into the cellar. Oh, my dear ma'am; you're a woman--I mean a lady." "Only a woman like yourself, Denton." "Then don't--pray don't stand by with your hands crossed and see that poor darling child sold into such a bondage as this." "What do you mean, Denton?" "Well, there, ma'am, if you're offended, you must be, but I shall speak the honest truth." "Go on, Denton."