were some among them who might have been respectable
men, and perchance carved their way to fortune, as well as some others
who had started in life with good patrimonies; but he, my father, at the
time he became associated with them, was the only one, as I say, who, to
use a phrase I have heard myself from his lips concerning them, had got
a feather to fly with.

"The consequence of this was, that his society, merely for the sake of
the animal gratification of drinking at his expense was courted, and he
was much flattered, all of which he laid to the score of his own merits,
which had been found out, and duly appreciated by these _bon vivants_,
while he considered that the grave admonitions of his real friends
proceeded from nothing in the world but downright envy and malice.

"Such a state of things as this could not last very long. The associates
of my father wanted money as well as wine, so they introduced him to the
gaming-table, and he became fascinated with the fearful vice to an
extent which predicted his own destruction and the ruin of every one who
was in any way dependent upon him.

"He could not absolutely sell Bannerworth Hall, unless I had given my
consent, which I refused; but he accumulated debt upon debt, and from
time to time stripped the mansion of all its most costly contents.

"With various mutations of fortune, he continued this horrible and
baneful career for a long time, until, at last, he found himself utterly
and irretrievably ruined, and he came home in an agony of despair, being
so weak, and utterly ruined in constitution, that he kept his bed for
many days.

"It appeared, however, that something occurred at this juncture which
gave him actually, or all events awakened a hope that he should possess
some money, and be again in a position to try his fortune at the
gaming-table.

"He rose, and, fortifying himself once more with the strong stimulant of
wine and spirits, he left his home, and was absent for about two months.

"What occurred to him during that time we none of us ever knew, but late
one night he came home, apparently much flurried in manner, and seeming
as if something had happened to drive him half mad.

"He would not speak to any one, but he shut himself up the whole of the
night in the chamber where hangs the portrait that bears so strong a
resemblance to Sir Francis Varney, and there he remained till the
morning, when he emerged, and said briefly that he intended to leave