The Litchfield County post., 1826-08-08

fore she gained her perfect recollection, he |
left the room for the night, and another
opportunity did not soon arrive.
The real truth was, that he had within
the hour he mentioned, thrown the dice,
and won; and that he had engaged, to ac-
company a party, the next evening a few
miles out of town. He went with them;
he played with them and in the new, and
absorbing excitement, thought not of the
fight Of time, till the lights wained dlm'
before the morning beam. Then, when
he looked around on the haggard and pas
sion traced features of his companions
of what society of hell" thought he,
sam become a member! Oh nature
when you doomed me a gamester, you
should have given me an iron frame, and
soul incapable of feeling"
Vain were his struggles to escape from
the tolls with which he had encompassed
himself; fresh recruits dropped in, and a.
mother morning found him wrought to
pitch of maniac excitement, that rendered
him insensible to the lapse of time, and to
the exhaustion of his frame. He return
ed to his home, after an absence of three
days, languid and miserable, yet with a
gloomy satisfaction, in the certainty OF his
fate. He was now free from the misery
of suspense; he was no longer in doubt, if
his fancied destiny would be fulfilled; and
he yielded to his fate without single eff
fort to avert it. The first step being taken
in the path of vice, for six months he went
down, with accelerated impulse.
Far different was it during these months,
with his now really wretched wife. The
habitual gloom and arrangement OF her
husband, added to his late hours, caused
her the keenest anguish; yet this very pres
sure Of affection, developed energies in
her nature, she was never thought to pos
sess.. She now knew him to be, what he
had said he must be, gamester an infat-
uated and undone one she feared, unless
He who alone can save, should snatch him
from destruction. She saw her own weak
nesses and errors, in their proper light !;
and bitterly regretted the infatuation, that
led her to expect so much, that it was per-
haps the remote cause why she had lost
all. Trifles that she had formerly magni-
fed into evils, now weighed like dust in
the balance, against the real troubles, that
beset her; and the consciousness, that she
had exacted too many sacrifices of time,
and Of inclination, caused her to look with
lenient eye, on his present dereliction
from his duties. > --
&c / see plainly" said she, to her mother,
" it was to preserve his own dignity, and
to check my encroaching folly, that he first
doviated from his former regular hours
and if his present dreadful course, is the
consequence of that deviation, my regrets
may well be bitter, and lasting. With these
feelings and these regrets, It would deeply
wound me, my dear mother, to hear from
your lips, in his presence, the slightest al
fusion to his present course of life: no let
me rather by cheerful surrender of my
wishes to his, convince him, that in a re-
turn to his former life, he has nothing to
fear from my exactions." -
The heart of Mrs. D., sprung to her
daughter, at this ingenious acknowledge
ment of her errors.--She wished much to
explain to her son, the cause Of the fatal
presentiment, that he ascribed to an uncon-
trolable propensity of his nature; yet fear
full it had taken too deep hold on his imagi-
nation, ever to be removed, she yielded
her own judgment, to her daughters wish
es, and watched in silent agony, the pro-
gress of his vice. as5
, At the close of six months, business and
pleasure dispersed for week or two, most
of his gaming companions and restored
Harry D, to the bosom Of his family.
Regular hours and rest, braced his languid
frame, and new strung his shaken nerves.
His spirit, too, assumed healthful tone;
and the dress, that for, months had been
gathering round his heart, began to melt
before the genial warmth Of the pure SYM
pathies of his nature.
"Where have the affections of my heart
been buried" thought he, as he caressed
his child, and looked with admiration on
his lovely wife 4; pleased as formerly, with
little attention, and expressions of affection,
yet apparently unconscious, when they
were withheld. Have they been reani-
mated to life, only to add to the bitterness
Of my regrets Z but it is all in vain to
struggle against the tendencies Of my be-
ing; ! might resist them now, yet must
ultimately be their VICTIM
He placed his child upon the floor, took
his hat, and was leaving the house, when
his wife, who had watched his motions with
breathless anxiety, sprung to him, pale and
trembling -" Harry, you will not GO ?''
=" What would you, Maria, !" said he, laying