Page:Orange Grove.djvu/272

 them, in the maddening pleasures of the bowl. I welcome woman to this stand. She who has suffered most must be the one to exert the greatest influence in this holy cause.

"When a man becomes so degraded as to accept the gutter for his lodging place, he is insensible to all the refinement of his nature, and does not realize his situation, while his wife is compelled to witness from day to day the gradual sinking of her brightest hopes and noblest conceptions of what constitutes a pure and honorable manhood, down, down below the lowest attributes of the brute creation. Oh, woman! what hast thou not suffered! Never until speech is given to the green sods of the valley, which have interposed their friendly hands to shield forevermore from mortal suffering the mouldering dust that has lain down in gladness to embrace the cold mother earth as its dearest protector, will be known what agonies have been thine! O! young maiden! now weaving beautiful visions of the future; young men! rejoicing in the strength of youth, with the future's unclouded prospects before you, would you know the direst foe you have to dread, the wariest serpent that will infuse into your brightest anticipations the bitterest, rankest gall and wormwood mortals can partake,—it is the intoxicating cup."

As Amelia rose, a sinking sensation began to creep over her, when she cast her eye in one corner where Mr. Kingley sat crossed-legged, arms folded across his chest, head leaning one side, and his scornful eyes peering at her with a malignity that reminded her of one particular evening, when her mother,