"
"Happened to trip! Yes, that is it, Mr. Birtwell; you use the right
word. He tripped at your house. But who laid the stone of stumbling
in his path? Suppose there had been no wine, served to your guests,
would he have stumbled on that fatal night? If there had been no
wine served, would Archie Voss have lost his way in the storm or
perished in the icy waters? No, my friend, no; and if there had been
no wine served at your board that night, three human lives which
have, alas! been hidden from us by death's eclipse would be shedding
light and warmth upon many hearts now sorrowful and desolate. Three
human lives, and a fourth just going out. There is responsibility,
and neither you nor I can escape it, Mr. Birtwell, if through
indifference or design we permit ourselves to become the instruments
of such dire calamities."
Mr. Birtwell had partly risen from his chair in making the weak
defence to which this was a reply, but now sunk back with an
expression that was half bewilderment and half terror on his
countenance.
"In Heaven's name, Mr. Elliott, what does all this mean?" he cried.
"Three lives and a fourth going out, and the responsibility laid at
my door!"
"It is much easier to let loose an evil power than to stay its
progress," said Mr. Elliott. "The near and more apparent effects we
may see, rarely the remote and secondary. But we know that the
action of all forces, good or evil, is like that of expanding
wave-circles, and reaches far beyond, our sight.
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