Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 1.djvu/87

Rh such a proceeding. My mother heard him with profoundest reverence; and even Mrs. Wilson vouchsafed to rest her tongue for a moment, and listen in silence, while she complacently sipped her gin and water. Mr. Lawrence sat with his elbow on the table, carelessly playing with his half-empty wine-glass, and covertly smiling to himself.

"But don't you think, Mr. Millward," suggested he, when at length that gentleman paused in his discourse, "that when a child may be naturally prone to intemperance—by the fault of its parents or ancestors, for instance—some precautions are advisable?" (Now it was generally believed that Mr. Lawrence's father had shortened his days by intemperance.)

"Some precautions, it may be; but temperance, sir, is one thing, and abstinence another."

"But I have heard that, with some persons, temperance—that is moderation—is almost impossible; and if abstinence be an evil, (which