All the nervous restlessness he had exhibited died out in a moment, and he stood very still, the ruddy marks of excitement going out of his face.

His eyes were turned from his mother and cast upon the floor.
"And so it has come to this," he said, huskily, and in a tone of humiliation.

"My mother thinks me in danger of becoming a drunkard--thinks me so weak that I cannot be trusted to take even a glass of wine." "Ellis!" Mrs.Whitford again laid her hand upon the arm of her son.
"Ellis," her voice had fallen to deep whisper, "if I must speak, I must.

There are ancestors who leave fatal legacies to the generations that come after them, and you are one accursed by such a legacy.

There is a taint in your blood, a latent fire that a spark may kindle into a consuming flame." She panted as she spoke with hurried utterance.