Never was a marriage more propitious, never were two young people
more happily situated than these two, for they were madly in love,
and each had ample means with which to make the most of life.
As Las Palmas had been the elder Austin's wedding-gift to his son,
so Alaire's dowry from her father had been La Feria, a grant of
lands across the Rio Grande beyond the twenty-league belt by which
Mexico fatuously strives to guard her border. And to Las Palmas
had come the bride and groom to live, to love, and to rear their
children.
But rarely has there been a shorter honeymoon, seldom a swifter
awakening. Within six months "Young Ed" had killed his wife's love
and had himself become an alcoholic. Others of his father's vices
revived, and so multiplied that what few virtues the young man had
inherited were soon choked. The change was utterly unforeseen; its
cause was rooted too deeply in the past to be remedied. Maturity
had marked an epoch with "Young Ed"; marriage had been the mile-
post where his whole course veered abruptly.
To the bride the truth had come as a stunning tragedy. She was
desperately frightened, too, and lived a nightmare life, the while
she tried in every way to check the progress of that
disintegration which was eating up her happiness.
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