Wild Margaret by Charles Garvice

Blair came back to town, thin, and pale, and haggard, with only one desire in his heart: to forget the past and kill the present! He had been wild and reckless as a youth, and it had only been his love for Margaret that had checked him in his road to ruin.

If she had still been by his side, he would have swung round and become one of the steadiest of men--she would have been his saving and guardian angel. But he had lost her, and with her all that had made his life worth living.