Chapter 54
As, for instance, it is now two years since I tasted a drop of wine, brandy, or anything else of a like nature. If your theory were true, I should still feel a latent desire, at times, to drink again. But this is not the case. I have not the slightest inclination. The sight, or even the smell of wine, does not produce the old desire, which it would inevitably do, if it were only quiescent--not extirpated--as I am confident that it is."
"And this is the reason why you think the pledge should not be perpetual?"
"It is. Why should there be an external restraint imposed upon a mere nonent.i.ty? It is absurd!"
"Granting, for the sake of argument, the view you take, in regard to the extirpation of the morbid desire, which, however, I cannot see to be true," Mrs. Marshall said, endeavouring to seem unconcerned, notwithstanding the position a.s.sumed by her husband troubled her instinctively,--"it seems to me, that there still exists a good reason why the pledge should be perpetual."
"What is that, Jane?"
"If a man has once been led off by a love of drink, when no previous habit had been formed, there exists, at least, the same danger again, if liquor be used;--and if it should possibly be true that the once formed desire, if subdued, is latent--not eradicated--the danger is quadrupled."
"I do not see the force of what you say," the husband replied. "To me, it seems, that the very fact that he had once fallen, and the remembrance of its sad consequences, would be a sure protection against another lapse from sobriety."
"It may all be so," Mrs. Marshall said, in a voice that conveyed a slight evidence of the sudden shadow that had fallen upon her heart.
And then ensued a silence of more than a minute. The wife then remarked in an inquiring tone--
"Then, if I understand you rightly, you think that the pledge should be binding only for a limited time?"
"I do."
"How long?"
"From one to two years. Two, at the farthest, would be sufficient, I am fully convinced, to restore any man, to the healthy tone of mind and body that he once possessed. And then, the recollection of the past would be an all-sufficient protection for the future."
Seeing that the husband was confirming himself more and more in the dangerous position that he had a.s.sumed, Mrs. Marshall said no more.
Painfully conscious was she, from a knowledge of his peculiar character, that, if the idea now floating in his mind should become fixed by a rational confirmation, it would lead to evil consequences. From that moment, she began eagerly to cast about in her mind for the means of setting him right,--means that should fully operate, without her apparent agency. But one way presented itself,--(argument, she was well aware, as far as it was possible for her to enter into it with him, would only set his mind the more earnestly in search of reason, to prove the correctness of his a.s.sumed positions,)--and that was to induce him to attend more frequently the temperance meetings, and listen to the addresses and experiences there given.
"Come, dear," she said to him, after tea, a few evenings subsequent to the time Marshall had begun to urge his objections to the pledge.
"I want you to go with me to-night to this great temperance meeting.
Mr.--is going to make an address, and I wish to hear him very much."
"It will be so crowded, Jane, that you will not have the least satisfaction," objected her husband--"and, besides, the evening is very warm."
"But I
"I am sorry, Jane," Marshall said, after the silence of a few moments. "But I recollect, now, that I promised Mr. Patton to call down and see him this evening. There are to be a few friends there, and he wished me, particularly, to meet them."
Poor Mrs. Marshall's countenance fell at this, and the tears gathered in her eyes.
"So, then, you won't go with me to the temperance meeting," she said, in a disappointed tone.
"I should like to do so, Jane," was the prevaricating reply, "but you see that it is out of my power, without breaking my promise, which you would not, of course, have me do."
"O, no, of course not."
"You can go, Jane. I will leave you at the door, and call for you when the meeting is out."
"No, I do not feel like going, now I should have enjoyed it with you by my side. But to go alone would mar all the pleasure."
"But surely that need not be, Jane. You know that I cannot be always with you."
"No, of course not," was uttered, mechanically; and then followed a long silence.
"So you will not go," Marshall at length said.
"I should not enjoy the meeting, and therefore do not wish to go,"
his wife replied.
"I am sorry for it, but cannot help it now, for I should not feel right were I not to comply with my promise."
"I do not wish you to break it, of course. For a promise should ever be kept sacred," Mrs. Marshall said, with a strong emphasis on the latter sentence.
This emphasis did not escape the notice of her husband, who felt that it was meant, as it really was, to apply to his state of mind in regard to the pledge. For it was a fact, which the instinctive perception of his wife had detected, that he had begun, seriously, to argue in his own mind, the question, whether, under the circ.u.mstances of the case, seeing, that, in taking the pledge, the principle of protection was alone considered, he was any longer bound by it. He did not, however, give expression to the thoughts that he had at the time. The subject of conversation was changed, and, in the course of half an hour, he left to fulfil his engagement, which had not, in reality, been a positive one. As he closed the door after him, Mrs. Marshall experienced a degree of loneliness, and a gloomy depression of feeling, that she could not fully account for, though she could not but acknowledge that, for a portion of it, there existed too certain a cause, in the strange and dangerous position her husband had taken in regard to the pledge.
As Marshall emerged from his dwelling, and took his way towards the friend's house, where he expected to meet a select company, his mind did not feel perfectly at ease. He had partly deceived his wife in reference to the positive nature of the engagement, and had done so in order to escape from an attendance on a temperance meeting. This did not seem right. There was, also, a consciousness in his mind that it would be extremely hazardous to throw off the restraints of his pledge, at the same time that a resolution was already half formed to do so. The agitation of mind occasioned by this conflict continued until he arrived at his friend's door, and then, as he joined the pleasant company within, it all subsided.
"A hearty welcome, Marshall!" said the friend, grasping his hand and shaking it warmly. "We were really afraid that we should not have the pleasure of your good society. But right glad am I, that, with your adherence to temperance men and temperance principles, you do not partake of the exclusive and unsocial character that so many a.s.sume."
"I regard my friends with the same warm feelings that I ever did,"
Marshall replied,--"and love to meet them as frequently."
"That is right. We are social beings, and should cultivate reciprocal good-feelings. But don't you think, Marshall, that some of you temperance folks carry matters too far?"
"Certainly I do. As, for instance, I consider this binding of a man to perpetual total-abstinence, as an unnecessary infringement of individual liberty. As I look upon it, the use of the pledge, is to enable a man, by the power of an external restraint, to gain the mastery over an appet.i.te that has mastered him. When that is accomplished, all that is wanted is obtained: of what use is the pledge after that?"
"Very true," was the encouraging reply.
"A man," resumed Marshall, repeating the argument he had used to his wife, which now seemed still more conclusive, "has only to abstain for a year or two from liquor to have the morbid craving for it which over-indulgence had created, entirely eradicated. Then he stands upon safe ground, and may take a social gla.s.s, occasionally, with his friends, without the slightest danger. To bind himself up, then, to perpetual abstinence, seems not only useless, but a real infringement of individual liberty."
"So it presents itself to my mind," rejoined one of the company.
"I feel it to be so in my case," was the reply of the reformed man to this, thus going on to invite temptation, instead of fleeing from it.
"Certainly, if I were the individual concerned," remarked one of the company, "I should not be long in breaking away from such arbitrary restrictions."
"How would you get over the fact of having signed the pledge?" asked Marshall, with an interest that he dared not acknowledge to himself.
"Easy enough," was the reply.
"How?"
"On the plea that I was deceived into signing such a pledge."
"How deceived?"
"Into a belief that it was the only remedy in my case. There is no moral law binding any man to a contract entered into ignorantly. The fact of ignorance, in regard to the fundamental principles of an agreement, vitiates it. Is not that true?"
"It certainly is," was the general reply to this question.