She had burst out, "Poor Joe! poor Joe!" That was the way every one considered him.

Was it her fault if he excited pity and contempt instead of love and respect?
Her love, she intimated, had been of a peculiarly eternal sort; Severance himself was to blame for its extinction.

Mr.Lanley discovered that in some way she considered the intemperance of Severance's habits to be involved.

But this was absurd.

It was true that for a year or two Severance had taken to drinking rather more than was wise; but, Mr.Lanley had thought at the time, the poor young man had not needed any artificial stimulant in the days when Adelaide had fully and constantly admired him.