introduced resided. Official standing gave him access to some of the
wealthiest and best circles in the city, and his accomplished wife
soon became a favorite with all who were fortunate enough to come
into close relations with her. Among these was Mrs. Birtwell, the
two ladies drawing toward each other with the magnetism of kindred
spirits.

A short time before coming to the city General Abercrombie, after
having in a fit of drunken insanity come near killing his wife,
wholly abandoned the use of intoxicants of every kind. He saw in
this his only hope. His efforts to drink guardedly and temperately
had been fruitless. The guard was off the moment a single glass of
liquor passed his lips, and, he came under the influence of an
aroused appetite against which resolution set itself feebly and in
vain.

Up to the evening of this party at Mr. Birtwell's General
Abercrombie had kept himself free from wine, and people who knew
nothing of his history wondered at his abstemiousness. When invited
to drink, he declined in a way that left no room for the invitation
to be repeated. He never went to private entertainments except in
company with his wife, and then he rarely took any other lady to the
supper-room.

The new hope born in the sad heart of Mrs. Abercrombie had grown
stronger as the weeks and months went by. Never for so long a time
had the general stood firm. It looked as, if he had indeed gained
the mastery over an appetite which at one time seemed wholly to have
enslaved him.