Had you not had so shrewd a wit and strong a will, you would not have been the greatest duchess in England, Clo, as well as the finest woman." "Nay," she answered--"in those days--nay, let us not speak of them! I would blot them out--out." As time went by, and the years spent in drink and debauchery began to tell even on the big, strong body which should have served any other man bravely long past his threescore and ten, Sir Jeoffry drank harder and lived more wildly, sometimes being driven desperate by dulness, his coarse pleasures having lost their potency.
"Liquor is not as strong as it once was," he used to grumble, "and there are fewer things to stir a man to frolic.

Lord, what roaring days and nights a man could have thirty years ago." So in his efforts to emulate such nights and days, he plunged deeper and deeper into new orgies; and one night, after a heavy day's hunting, sitting at the head of his table with his old companions, he suddenly leaned forward, staring with starting eyes at an empty chair in a dark corner.

His face grew purple, and he gasped and gurgled.
"What is't, Jeoff ?" old Eldershawe cried, touching his shoulder with a shaking hand.

"What's the man staring at, as if he had gone mad ?" "Jack," cried Sir Jeoffry, his eyes still farther starting from their sockets.

"Jack! what say you?
I cannot hear." The next instant he sprang up, shrieking, and thrusting with his hands as if warding something off.
"Keep back!" he yelled.