had my revenge.

"And I can't tell you at this minute whether I was done or not,"
concluded the Colonel, musing. "Sometimes I think I was: but then
Caroline was so fond of me. That woman would never have seen me done:
never, I'm sure she wouldn't: at least, if she would, I'm deceived in
woman."

Any further revelations of his past life which Altamont might have
been disposed to confide to his honest comrade the Chevalier, were
interrupted by a knocking at the outer door of their chambers; which,
when opened by Grady the servant, admitted no less a person than Sir
Francis Clavering into the presence of the two worthies.

"The Governor, by Jove," cried Strong, regarding the arrival of his
patron with surprise. "What's brought you here?" growled Altamont,
looking sternly from under his heavy eyebrows at the Baronet. "It's
no good, I warrant." And indeed, good very seldom brought Sir Francis
Clavering into that or any other place.

Whenever he came into Shepherd's Inn it was money that brought the
unlucky baronet into those precincts; and there was commonly a gentleman
of the money-dealing world in waiting for him at Strong's chambers, or
at Campion's below; and a question of bills to negotiate or to renew.
Claverng was a man who had never looked his debts fairly in the face,
familiar as he had been with them all his life; as long as he could
renew a bill, his mind was easy regarding it; and he would sign almost
anything for to-morrow, provided to-day could be left unmolested. He
was a man whom scarcely any amount of fortune could have benefited
permanently, and who was made to be ruined to cheat small tradesmen, to
be the victim of astuter sharpers: to be niggardly and reckless, and as
destitute of honesty as the people who cheated him, and a dupe, chiefly
because he was too mean to be a successful knave. He had told more lies
in his time, and undergone more baseness of stratagem in order to
stave off a small debt, or to swindle a poor creditor, than would have
sufficed to make a fortune for a braver rogue. He was abject and a
shuffler in the very height of his prosperity. Had he been a Crown
Prince--he could not have been more weak, useless, dissolute or
ungrateful. He could not move through life except leaning on the arm
of somebody: and yet he never had an agent but he mistrusted him; and
marred any plans which might be arranged for his benefit, and secretly
acting against the people whom he employed. Strong knew Cl