During the foregoing conversation Co-
rinne had discovered several times, as Her-
bert bowed his face near her own, that his
breath was deeply tainted with the juice of
the vine, and the fear, added to the pang of
discovering his atheistical principles, that he
resorted habitually to exciting stimulants,
caused her to assume an air of cold hauteur
to hide the troubled emotions of her heart,
wAici heretofore believing him to be the



THE SISTER OF CHARITY. 127

incarnation of all that was excellent in hu-
man nature, had perhaps bestowed more of
its regard on him than she was herself aware
of, and caused her sometimes to hope that
the prognostics of the world concerning
them would be eventually realized.
During the excitement of that convivial
day at the Oaklands, Evelyn Herbert had,
contrary to his usual custom, indulged free-
ly his thirst for wine, and reconciled himself
to the act by wishing to believe that a duty
to his guests required it. Those who wit-
nessed his deep potations found a ready ex-
cuse for him in the excitement of the scene
around him, and the fancied necessity he was
under of drinking the enthusiastic toasts in
his honor, which were proposed by his father
and his own most valued friends ; and it was
only when they discovered from his maudlin
looks and incoherent language, that he was
overcome by his frequent potations, that they
desisted from their well-meant flatteries and
cniel kindness. ludge Herbert^Yrivk^'^'^KSik.
128 THE SISTER OF CHARITY.
