“And do you consider his being a ‘professing Christian,’ as you call it, a circumstance to be concealed?”
“Not at all, sir—but I consider it a good reason why the facts I am about to tell you, ought not to be generally known. Scoffers abound; and I take it that the feelings of a believer ought to be treated more tenderly than those of an unbeliever, for the church’s sake.”
“That is a fashion of the times too—one of the ways of the hour, whether it is to last or not. But, proceed if you please, my good Mrs. Horton; I am quite curious to know by what particular sin Satan managed to overcome this ‘professing Christian?’”
“He drank, ’Squire Dunscomb—no, he guzzled, for that is the best word. You must know that Dolly was avarice itself—that’s the reason she took this Mary Monson in to board, though her house was no ways suited for boarders, standing out of the way, with only one small spare bed-room, and that under the roof. Had she let this stranger woman come to one of the regular houses, as she might have done, and been far better accommodated than it was possible for her to be in a garret, it is not likely she would have been murdered. She lost her life, as I tell Horton, for meddling with other people’s business.”
“If such were the regular and inevitable punishment of that particular offence, my good landlady, there would be a great dearth of ladies,” said Tom Dunscomb, a little drily—“but, you were remarking that Peter Goodwin, the member of meeting, and Mary Monson’s supposed victim, had a weakness in favour of strong liquor?”
“Juleps were his choice—I’ve heard of a part of the country, somewhere about Virginny, I believe it is, where tee-totallers make an exception in favour of juleps—it may do there, Squire Dunscomb, but it won’t do here. No liquor undoes a body, in this part of the country, sooner than mint juleps. I will find you ten constitutions that can hold out ag’in brandy, or plain grog, or even grog, beer and cider, all three together, where you can find me one that will hold out ag’in juleps. I always set down a reg’lar julep fancier as a case—that is, in this part of the country.”
“Very true, my good landlady, and very sensible and just. I consider you a sensible and just woman, whose mind has been enlarged by an extensive acquaintance with human nature——”
“A body does pick up a good deal in and around a bar, ’Squire Dunscomb!”
“Pick up, indeed—I’ve known ’em picked up by the dozen myself. And Peter would take the juleps?”
“Awfully fond of them! He no more dared to take one at home, however, than he dared to go and ask Minister Watch to make him one. No, he know’d better where the right sort of article was to be had, and always came down to our house when he was dry. Horton mixes stiff, or we should have been a good deal better off in the world than we are—not that we’re mis’rable, as it is. But Horton takes it strong himself, and he mixes strong for others. Peter soon found this out, and he fancied his juleps more, as he has often told me himself, than the juleps of the great Bowery-man, who has a name for ’em, far and near. Horton can mix a julep, if he can do nothing else.”