not do so too often. Good! I'd forgotten the other rascal, but I see the rest have not been so thoughtless. They have him bound. They have him bound. We'll ques

tion the fellow later."

I staunched the blood while Verbena from the kitchen brought a salve of salt and vinegar, and, after she had bandaged me with it, physically I felt as good as ever. My conscience, however, twinged me a bit-first for not having rescued Toby from the sharpers, and then for having permitted one of them to escape with the money, once I had recovered it. But on the latter point my mind was soon set at rest, for, on searching the prisoner, Toby's wealth was found intact. That the purse I had for a moment held was empty was a fact evidently unknown to Stuart, who had attempted murder to regain it. Toby jingled his recovered treasure before Verbena's eyes.

"Your dower, my dear, when you embark again." 66 And I'll add to it a like amount," said Nelson. Now, the late Jack Sykes was doubtless an excellent quartermaster, but I have serious doubts as to the record he made as a husband; for certain it is that, at these projects for her future, Verbena blushed most becomingly.

"And now, gentlemen," and Toby turned and

addressed the entire tap-room-needless to say all by this time were his friends, even the now recovered pugilist; while the enmity of Moore and Scott having been a mere pleasantry, the one he had easily captivated by his wit, the other by his prowess"and, now, the evening must not end with any ill feeling betwixt us. You must forgive my folly and bear with my humours on my natal day. Before we part, a farewell drink all 'round-a bowl of Dr. Johnson's 'Bishop's Punch.""

The room resounded with our approval, and, the punch having been brought, Toby, flagon in hand, gave his toast:

"Lord Nelson!"

"Nay, Squire," protested the Admiral, “I'm not the hero to-night."

"I have it, Master Hasset." It was the all-conquering voice of Lady Hamilton. "Please, may I propose the toast?"

The witch! The inimitable, archly-appealing look and tone! Might she!

“Madam, I would have asked you an' I dared." She sprang lightly to a chair, one hand resting among Verbena's disordered locks, the other holding aloft the glass. And never again shall I seebut there, I'm almost seventy.

Then, gentlemen, 'Here's the wind that blows, and the ship that goes, and the lass that loves a sailor." "

All this happened nearly two score years ago. But, if memory serves me right, I'm almost positive we drank the toast.

Chapter XII

A Rout on Grosvenor Square

ES, I, too, drank the toast, and as I did so looked up at her with much of that worship

I had given her during my first days in Naples. I loved her then, after a fashion, and doubtless always I will love her memory, forgetting her faults, remembering the virtues I knew better than almost any of the others save Nelson. Yet, when the gaiety of the tap-room had faded, when she was no longer before me poised on the chair with sparkling eyes and merry jest, when the outer air had swept some of the illusioning cob-webs from my brain and at last I stood in the false and enfeebling glitter of her house on Grosvenor Square, I knew, as I now know, that it was all wrong, wrong, wrong!—that it was deadening her innate goodness, that it was blackly tarnishing the lustre of one of the noblest, bravest of men, and was slowly killing a loving, lovable and innocent wife.

I glanced around the rooms and saw at once the character of this midnight gathering, composed as it was of all bohemian London of the period-act

resses, statesmen, poets, painters and royalty itself, scoundrels and honourables, would-bes and celebrities. It was Naples duplicated, but with an English setting, lacking the Italian lightness which, with us, is veneer, not nature. It was a go-as-you-please affair, here and there in cosey nooks a flirting couple, in more roomy places music and dancing, at the buffet a crowd drinking and jesting, and in more than one corner card tables on which were heaped no inconsiderable sums.

He

My arrival caused no cessation in these various amusements, but that of the Duke of Clarence a trifle later brought about a momentary lull. He was accompanied by Mrs. Jordan, the actress, and that fact alone would have told any but poor, ignorant Lady Hamilton how little the Prince honoured the house she was delighted to see him enter. had fetched the player from Drury Lane, at which theatre she had been for fifteen years, a rival at one time of Siddons herself. But I noticed that she had grown fat since as a boy I sat in front and thought her the most charming "Sir Harry Wildair" that ever was or could be, and I wondered if the passion of His Royal Highness was as hot as ever. I saw, too, and smiled somewhat bitterly thereat, that the still comely Jordan had brought