if I don't
make him drunk before I let him go! He shall make up for all past
delinquencies as sure as I'm a living soul!'

There followed a disgraceful contest: Lord Lowborough, in desperate
earnest, and pale with anger, silently struggling to release himself from
the powerful madman that was striving to drag him from the room. I
attempted to urge Arthur to interfere in behalf of his outraged guest,
but he could do nothing but laugh.

'Huntingdon, you fool, come and help me, can't you!' cried Hattersley,
himself somewhat weakened by his excesses.

'I'm wishing you God-speed, Hattersley,' cried Arthur, 'and aiding you
with my prayers: I can't do anything else if my life depended on it! I'm
quite used up. Oh--oh!' and leaning back in his seat, he clapped his
hands on his sides and groaned aloud.

'Annabella, give me a candle!' said Lowborough, whose antagonist had now
got him round the waist and was endeavouring to root him from the
door-post, to which he madly clung with all the energy of desperation.

'I shall take no part in your rude sports!' replied the lady coldly
drawing back. 'I wonder you can expect it.' But I snatched up a candle
and brought it to him. He took it and held the flame to Hattersley's
hands, till, roaring like a wild beast, the latter unclasped them and let
him go. He vanished, I suppose to his own apartment, for nothing more
was seen of him till the morning. Swearing and cursing like a maniac,
Hattersley threw himself on to the ottoman beside the window. The door
being now free, Milicent attempted to make her escape from the scene of
her husband's disgrace; but he called her back, and insisted upon her
coming to him.

'What do you want, Ralph?' murmured she, reluctantly approaching him.

'I want to know what's the matter with you,' said he, pulling her on to
his knee like a child. 'What are you crying for, Milicent?--Tell me!'

'I'm not crying.'

'You are,' persisted he, rudely pulling her hands from her face. 'How
dare you tell such a lie!'

'I'm not crying now,' pleaded she.

'But you have been, and just this minute too; and I will know what for.
Come, now, you shall tell me!'

'Do let me alone, Ralph! Remember, we are not at home.'

'No matter: you shall answer my question!' exclaimed her tormentor; and
he attempted to extort the confession by shaking her, and remorselessly
crushing her slight arms in the gripe of his powerful fingers.

'Don't let him treat your sis