liffe.
2. Sir Charles Keyning.
3. Thomas Thomas.

and so on until the full list had been announced.

"Gentlemen," proceeded the Major. "We are all anxious to get without
delay to the main business of the evening. I will therefore make my
remarks as brief as possible--"

A loud "Hear, hear!" from a distant corner made the Major look round
angrily, but without discovering the delinquent.

"Jilted gentlemen, your most sacred feelings have been trifled with by
the delicate, the harmless, the innocent (groans) daughters of Eve. They
are not to blame, oh no, they could not do such a thing; but we,
gentlemen, we know better (hear, hear), and we are here to-night to
ratify our bond to stand united against the insidious onslaught of those
'whose fangs,' as an American writer so aptly and so eloquently
expresses it, 'drip with the blood of the foolishly fond and true' (loud
cheers.) I shall now call upon our esteemed member, 'Wyck,' to relate to
us his story of the revenge he has taken upon the sex which has wronged
him."

Cheers again greeted the close of the Major's speech, and cries of
"Wyck! Good old Wyck," resounded from all quarters of the room.

Villiers Wyckliffe, a young man of about 28 years of age, rose slowly.
In his hand he held ostentatiously a small ebony stick, that was his
constant companion, and which he handled fondly.

"Gentlemen," interposed a member, "before Wyck speaks I have to ask you
to charge your glasses, and drink to him." A request that was at once
complied with.

"Mr. President and gentlemen," he began, in a soft, caressing voice, "I
thank you for the kind manner in which you have drunk my health. I will
now endeavour to give you a few details of my simple career. I will
plead guilty to a sneaking fondness for the fair sex (hear, hear), but I
can fairly say I have only yet seen one member of it who struck me as
being anything out of the common (oh). I mean by that, one that I should
care to marry (laughter). Feeling rather weary of London, I went for a
trip round the world, and it was during that trip that I met the
uncommon one. At Nice I made her acquaintance. She was the daughter of a
retired Colonel with a wooden leg, and she took my fancy. Why, I cannot
tell, but there is no accounting for taste. Her manner to me was cold
and haughty, which had the effect of making me all the more eager, and
after a week's acquaintance I proposed. I offered to make handsome
settlements, eve