The Argosy — page 129: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

116 Roger Bevere. He had changed his tone to one solemn enough for a judge. ‘T cannot ¢izmk how he came to do it,” I argued. “Or how such a one as Bevere, well-intentioned, well brought up, could have allowed himself to fall into what Mr. Brandon calls loose habits) How came he to take to drinking ways, even in a small degree?” “The railway refreshment bars did that for him, I take it,” answered Pitt. ‘‘He lived up here from the first, by the Bell-and-Clapper, and I suppose found the underground train more convenient than the omnibus. Up he'd rush in a morning to catch—say—the half- past eight train, and would often miss it by half a minute. A miss is as good as amile. Instead of cooling his heels on the draughty and deserted platform, he would turn into the refreshment room and find there warmth and sociable company in the shape of pretty girls to chat with: and, if he so minded, a glass of something or other to keep out the cold on a wintry morning.” ‘As if Bevere would !—at that early hour!” ‘‘Some of them do,” affirmed Pitt. ‘‘ Anyway, that’s how Bevere fell into the habit of frequenting the bar-room of the Bell-and-Clapper. It lay so handy, you see ; right in his path, He would run into it again of an evening when he returned: he had no home, no friends waiting for him, only lodgings. There ——” ‘JT thought Bevere used to board with a family,” I eae, rupted. “So he did at first; and very nice people they were: Mr. Brandon took care he should be well placed. That’s why Bevere came up this way at all: it was rather far from the hospital, but Mr. Brandon knew the people. Ina short time, however, the lady died, the home was broken up, and Bevere then took lodgings on his own account; and so—there was nobody to help him keep out of mischief.—To go on with what I was saying. He learnt to frequent the bar-room at the Bell- and-Clapper : not only to run into it in a morning, but also on his return in the evening. He had no sociable tea or dinner-table wait- ing for him, you see, with pleasant faces round it. ll the plea- sant faces he met were those behind the counter; and there he would stay, talking, laughing, chaffing with the girls, one of whom was Miss Lizzie, goodness knows how long—the places are kept open till midnight.” “It had its attractions for him, I suppose—what with the girls and the bottles.” Pitt nodded. ‘It has for many a one besides him, Johnny. Roger had to call for drink; possibly without the slightest natural inclination for anything, he had perforce to call for it; he could hardly linger there unless he did. By-and- by, I reckon, he got to like the drink; he acquired the taste for it, you see, and habit soon becomes second nature; one glass became two glasses, two glasses three. This went on foratime. The next act in the young man’s drama was, that he allowed himself to glide into an entangle- Eomichbooks (E(0)