enticements of appetite are as strong and enslaving in one grade of
society as in another, and the disturbance of normal conditions as
great. And so you see that the wife of an intoxicated army officer
or lawyer or banker may be in as much danger from his drunken and
insane fury, when alone with him and unprotected, as the wife of a
street-sweeper or hod-carrier."

"I have never thought of it in that way."

"No, perhaps not. Cases of wife-beating and personal injuries, of
savage and frightful assaults, of terrors and sufferings endured
among the refined and educated, rarely if ever come to public
notice. Family pride, personal delicacy and many other
considerations seal the lips in silence. But there are few social
circles in which it is not known that some of its members are sad
sufferers because of a husband's or a father's intemperance, and
there are many, many families, alas! which have always in their
homes the shadow of a sorrow that embitters everything. They hide it
as best they can, and few know or dream of what they endure."

Dr. Angier joined the two men at this moment, and heard the last
remark. The speaker added, addressing him:

"Your professional experience will corroborate this, Dr. Angier."

"Corroborate what?" he asked, with a slight appearance of evasion in
his manner.

"We were speaking of the effects of intemperance on the more
cultivated and refined classes, and I said that it mattered little