Page:The Father Confessor, Stories of Danger and Death.djvu/248

238 after she saw Hugh facing her as she lunched. She noticed that he drank deeply, that his face had changed terribly: that he had grown thin and haggard, only the eyes remained as strong and brilliant as ever.

"He is drinking himself to death before my eyes; this is his revenge," she thought, and wept for him in the night.

Another day, and for the first time since she married, she spoke to Hugh. He was sitting alone, as usual, in the restaurant. When her husband went to the door, she went back with an excuse of a dropped handkerchief.

She stopped by Hugh a moment.

"Go home to Ireland," she said; "for God's sake, Hugh, and drink no more."

He only laughed.

"Look at the magician," he said, holding his glass against the light. "If you want to be king, this will put you on a throne. If you want to love, this will bring you the woman of your desire. If you want to forget, here is oblivion."

"Go home," she answered. "Hugh, you must not stay here following us abou.t Why do you do it?"