himself, but treating
a dozen fellows round him, the cost of which he from time to time called
upon "Old Flint," as he courteously styled his ancient friend, to
discharge.

"Come, fork out, Old Flint!" he cried again and again. "It'll be all
right, you know, in a day or two, and a few halfpence over. Shell out,
old fellow! What signifies, so you're happy?"

Jackson complied with an affectation of acquiescent gayety ludicrous to
behold. It was evident that each successive pull at his purse was like
wrenching a tooth out of his head, and yet while the dismallest of
smiles wrinkled his wolfish mouth, he kept exclaiming: "A fine lad--a
fine lad! generous as a prince--generous as a prince! Good Lord, another
round! He minds money no more than as if gold was as plentiful as
gravel! But a fine generous lad for all that!"

Jackson, I perceived, drank considerably, as if incited thereto by
compressed savageness. The pretty young wife would not taste a drop, but
tears frequently filled her eyes, and bitterness pointed her words as
she vainly implored her husband to leave the place and go home with her.
To all her remonstrances the maudlin drunkard replied only by foolery,
varied occasionally by an attempt at a line or two of the song of "The
Thorn."

"But you _will_ plant thorns, Henry," rejoined the provoked wife in a
louder and angrier tone than she ought perhaps to have used--"not only
in my bosom, but your own, if you go on in this sottish, disgraceful
way."

"Always quarrelling, always quarrelling!" remarked Jackson, pointedly,
towards the bystanders--"_always_ quarrelling!"

"Who is always quarrelling?" demanded the young wife sharply. "Do you
mean me and Henry?"

"I was only saying, my dear, that you don't like your husband to be so
generous and free-hearted--that's all," replied Jackson, with a
confidential wink at the persons near him.

"Free-hearted and generous! Fool-hearted and crazy, you mean!" rejoined
the wife, who was much excited. "And you ought to be ashamed of yourself
to give him money for such brutish purposes."

"Always quarrelling, always quarrelling!" iterated Jackson, but this
time unheard by Mrs. Rogers--"_always_, perpetually quarrelling!"

I could not quite comprehend all this. If so large a sum as L1500 was
really coming to the young man, why should Jackson wince as he did at
disbursing small amounts which he could repay himself with abundant
interest? If otherwise--and it was probable he