r, 'You 've cost me fifteen hundred in damages, and you may
tell Ogden he shall have you back again for fifty.'"

"And she bore all this?"

"I don't know what you mean by bearing it. She did not stab him. Some
say that Hawke was mad, but I never thought so. He had boastful fits at
times, in which he would vaunt all his villanies, and tell you of the
infamies he had done with this man and that; but they were purely
the emanations of an intense vanity, which left him unable to conceal
anything. Imagine, for instance, his boasting how he had done the
'Globe' office out of ten thousand, insured on his first wife's
life,--drowned when bathing. I heard the story from his own lips, and I
'll never forget his laugh as he said, 'I 'd have been in a hole if Mary
had n't.'"

"That was madness, depend on 't."

"No; I think not. It was partly vanity, for he delighted above all
things to create an effect, and partly a studied plan to exercise an
influence by actual terror, in which he had a considerable success. I
could tell you of a score of men who would not have dared to thwart him;
and it was at last downright desperation drove Tom Towers and Wake
to"--he hesitated, faltered, and, in a weak voice, added,--"to do it!"

"How was it brought about?" whispered Stocmar, cautiously.

Paten took out his cigar-case, selected a cigar with much care, lighted
it, and, after smoking for some seconds, began: "It all happened this
way: we met one night at that singing-place in the Haymarket. Towers,
Wake, Collins, and myself were eating an oyster supper, when Hawke came
in. He had been dining at the 'Rag,' and had won largely at whist from
some young cavalry swells, who had just joined. He was flushed and
excited, but not from drinking, for he said he had not tasted anything
but claret-cup at dinner. 'You're a mangy-looking lot,' said he,
'with your stewed oysters and stout,' as he came up. 'Why, frozen-out
gardeners are fine gentlemen in comparison. Are there no robberies going
on at the Ottoman,--nothing doing down at Grimshaw's?'

"'You 're very bumptious about belonging to the "Rag," Hawke.' said
Towers; 'but they 'll serve you the same trick they did _me_ one of
these days.'

"'No, sir, they 'll never turn _me_ out,' said Hawke, insolently.

"'More fools they, then,' said the other; 'for you can do _ten_ things
for _one_ that I can; and, what's more, you _have_ done them.'

"'And will again, old boy, if that's any comfort to you