Pardon me this once, and I will never again allude to the subject." A sullen silence followed on the part of Lee, who drank frequently during the meal, and seemed to do so more with the evil pleasure of paining his wife than from any other motive.

So sadly perverting is the influence of liquor upon some men, when opposed, changing those who are kind and affectionate into cruel and malicious beings.
From that hour Mrs.Lee was a changed woman.

She felt that the star of love, which for so many happy years had thrown its rays into the very midst of their fireside circle, had become hidden amid clouds, from which she looked at every moment for the bursting of a desolating storm.

And her husband was, likewise, a changed man.

His pride and self-love had been wounded, and he could not forgive her who had thus wounded him, even though she were his wife.