I'm on my way home now, and you will please return with me." "I don't know about that," said Wilkinson, who could not forget his promise to his wife.

"I told Mary, when I went out, that I would only be gone half an hour, and that time has expired already." "Oh, never mind," returned the other, lightly.

"She'll forgive you, I'll be bound.

Tell her that you came home, in all obedience to her wishes, but that I met you at your own door, and carried you off in spite of yourself." And as Elbridge said this, he drew his arm within that of Wilkinson, and the two men went chatting away.
Elbridge was fond of good wine, and always kept a few choice bottles on hand.

Wilkinson knew this; and, if he had looked narrowly into his heart on the present occasion, he would have discovered that the wine of his friend had for him a stronger attraction than his company.
As the latter had anticipated, wine and cigars were produced immediately on their arrival at the house of Elbridge; and in the exhilaration of the one and the fumes of the other, he soon forgot his lonely, troubled wife and sick child at home.
A friend or two dropped in, in the course of half an hour; and then a second bottle of wine was uncorked, and glasses refilled with its sparkling contents.
The head of Wilkinson was not very strong.