ould have lived so long in the world, Frank Clavering, without having
my eyes about me? You know I have but to speak and you are a beggar
to-morrow. And I am not the only man who knows your secret."

"Who else does?" gasped Clavering.

"Old Pendennis does, or I am very much mistaken. He recognised the man
the first night he saw him, when he came drunk into your house."

"He knows it, does he?" shrieked out Clavering. "Damn him--kill him."

"You'd like to kill us all, wouldn't you, old boy?" said Strong, with a
sneer, puffing his cigar.

The Baronet dashed his weak hand against his forehead; perhaps the other
had interpreted his wish rightly. "Oh, Strong!" he cried, "if I dared,
I'd put an end to myself, for I'm the d-----est miserable dog in all
England. It's that that makes me so wild and reckless. It's that which
makes me take to drink" (and he drank, with a trembling hand, a bumper
of his fortifier--the curacoa), "and to live about with these thieves. I
know they're thieves, every one of 'em, d----d thieves. And--and how
can I help it?--and I didn't know it, you know--and, by Gad, I'm
innocent--and until I saw the d----d scoundrel first, I knew no more
about it than the dead--and I'll fly, and I'll go abroad out of the
reach of the confounded hells, and I'll bury myself in a forest, by Gad!
and hang myself up to a tree--and, oh--I'm the most miserable beggar in
all England!" And so with more tears, shrieks, and curses, the impotent
wretch vented his grief and deplored his unhappy fate; and, in the midst
of groans and despair and blasphemy, vowed his miserable repentance.

The honoured proverb which declares that to be an ill wind which blows
good to nobody, was verified in the case of Sir Francis Clavering, and
another of the occupants of Mr. Strong's chambers in Shepherd's Inn. The
man was "good," by a lucky hap, with whom Colonel Altamont made his
bet; and on the settling day of the Derby--as Captain Clinker, who
was appointed to settle Sir Francis Clavering's book for him (for Lady
Clavering by the advice of Major Pendennis, would not allow the Baronet
to liquidate his own money transactions), paid over the notes to the
Baronet's many creditors--Colonel Altamont had the satisfaction of
receiving the odds of thirty to one in fifties, which he had taken
against the winning horse of the day.

Numbers of the Colonel's friends were present on the occasion to
congratulate him on his luck--all Altamont's own set, a