he had not
been drinking tea with any of his female relatives.

Captain Scarborough had just come out of some neighboring club, where he
had certainly been playing, and where, to all appearances, he had been
drinking also. That there should have been no policemen in the street
was not remarkable, but there was no one else there present to give any
account of what took place during the five minutes in which the two men
remained together. Harry, who was at the moment surprised by the
encounter, would have passed the captain by without notice, had he been
allowed to do so; but this the captain perceived, and stopped him
suddenly, taking him roughly by the collar of his coat. This Harry
naturally resented, and before a word of intelligible explanation had
been given the two young men had quarrelled.

Captain Scarborough had received a long letter from Mrs. Mountjoy,
praying for explanation of circumstances which could not be explained,
and stating over and over again that all her information had come from
Harry Annesley.

The captain now called him an interfering, meddlesome idiot, and shook
him violently while holding him in his grasp. This was a usage which
Harry was not the man to endure, and there soon arose a scuffle, in
which blows had passed between them. The captain stuck to his prey,
shaking him again and again in his drunken wrath, till Harry, roused to
a passion almost equal to that of his opponent, flung him at last
against the corner of the club railings, and there left his foe
sprawling upon the ground, having struck his head violently against the
ground as he fell. Harry passed on to his own bed, indifferent, as it
was afterwards said, to the fate of his antagonist. All this occupied
probably five minutes in the doing, but was seen by no human eye.

As the occurrence of that night was subsequently made the ground for
heavy accusation against Harry Annesley, it has been told here with
sufficient minuteness to show what might be said in justification or in
condemnation of his conduct,--to show what might be said if the truth
were spoken. For, indeed, in the discussions which arose on the subject,
much was said which was not true. When he had retired from the scuffle
on that night, Harry had certainly not dreamed that any serious damage
had been done to the man who had certainly been altogether to blame in
his provocation of the quarrel. Had he kept his temper and feelings
completely under control, and knoc