ancestors had set; and if I had stayed there all my life I would
probably have found living up to it either very galling or quite
impossible. I dare say it is just as well that I did break loose and
burn the bridge behind me, for if I had stayed in New England it's
likely I should have turned out a black sheep and brought shame and
disgrace upon my people.

"While I was in New York I fell in with a pleasant, companionable man,
some years older than myself. He went around with me a good deal, took
me to his home, where I met his wife and sister, gave me sensible
advice about a number of things, and was altogether so entertaining and
so kind and such a good fellow that I thought myself fortunate in
having met him.

"One evening, when I was almost ready to return to Boston, I dined with
him at his home. He had had me there to dinner several times, and the
evening had always passed off pleasantly. But on this evening I drank
more wine than was good for me. Probably it was doctored, but I don't
know. All my life, whenever I have taken a glass too much, one sure
result has followed. All the restraints of conduct which I ordinarily
feel drop away, and I become reckless.

"So this evening, when he brought out cards and we began to bet on the
game, both my moral sense and my prudence deserted me. I drank more
and more, and bet higher and higher, and after a while I realized that
he had won from me quite a sum of money which I had neglected to send
to my father during the day.

"Then I drank more; and after that I do not know what happened until I
awoke with a dazed sense of having heard a woman scream and of being in