human
Our young friend is getting rather gay, said Dr. Hillhouse to Mr. Elliott, half an hour afterward. He referred to Ellis Whitford, who was talking and laughing in a way that to some seemed a little too loud and boisterous.
gpt
I'm afraid for him,
human
Ah, yes! I remember what you were saying about his two grandfathers, returned the clergyman.
gpt
And you really think he may inherit something from them?
human
Don't you?
gpt
Well, yes, of course. But I mean an inordinate desire for drink, a craving that makes indulgence perilous?
human
Yes; that is just what I do believe.
gpt
You drank with him?
human
Yes. He and Blanche Birtwell have recently become engaged, and I took some wine with them in compliment.
gpt
I am really sorry for Mrs. Whitford,
human
Why so?
gpt
What's the matter? No family trouble, I hope?
human
Very serious trouble I should call it were it my own,
gpt
I am pained to hear you speak so. What has occurred?
human
Haven't you noticed her son to-night? There! That was his laugh. He's been drinking too much. I saw his mother looking at him a little while ago with eyes so full of sorrow and suffering that it made my heart ache.
gpt
Oh, I hope it's nothing, replied Mr. Elliott.
human
Young men will become a little gay on these occasions; we must expect that. All of them don't bear wine alike. It's mortifying to Mrs. Whitford, of course, but she's a stately woman, you know, and sensitive about proprieties.
gpt
Sensitive about proprieties, said the lady to herself, with some feeling, as she stood looking down the room to where Ellis Whitford in a group of young men and women was giving vent to his exuberant spirits more noisily than befitted the place and occasion.
human
Mr. Elliott calls things by dainty names.
gpt
I call that disgraceful,
human
Young men will become a little gay on these occasions, said the person to whom she had spoken, with some irony in her tone.
gpt
So Mr. Elliott says.
human
Mr. Elliott! There was a tone of bitterness and rejection in the speaker's voice.
gpt
Mr. Elliott had better give our young men a safer example than he does. A little gay! A little drunk would be nearer the truth.
human
Oh dear! such a vulgar word! We don't use it in good society, you know. It belongs to taverns and drinking-saloons--to coarse, common people. You must say 'a little excited,' 'a little gay,' but not drunk. That's dreadful!
gpt
Drunk! said the other, with emphasis, but speaking low and for the ear only of the lady with whom she was talking.
human
We understand a great deal better the quality of a thing when we call it by its right name. If a young man drinks wine or brandy until he becomes intoxicated, as Whitford has done to-night, and we say he is drunk instead of exhilarated or a little gay, we do something toward making his conduct odious. We do not excuse, but condemn. We make it disgraceful instead of palliating the offence.
gpt
Look! Blanche Birtwell is trying to quiet him. Did you know they were engaged?
human
What!
gpt
Engaged.
human
Then I pity her from my heart. A young man who hasn't self-control enough to keep himself sober at an evening party can't be called a very promising subject for a husband.
gpt
She has placed her arm in his and is looking up into his face so sweetly. What a lovely girl she is! There! he's quieter already; and see, she is drawing him out of the group of young men and talking to him in such a bright, animated way.
human
Poor child! it makes my eyes wet; and this is her first humiliating and painful duty toward her future husband. God pity and strengthen her is my heartfelt prayer. She will have need, I fear, of more than human help and comfort.
gpt
You take the worst for granted?
human
I fear the worst, and know something of what the worst means. There are few families of any note in our city, she added, after a slight pause,