s gracious as possible; and
when, at the end of the walk, we parted, she said "she hoped Captain
Dobble would bring me to her apartments that evening, where she expected
a few friends." Everybody, you see, knows everybody at Leamington; and
I, for my part, was well known as a retired officer of the army, who,
on his father's death, had come into seven thousand a year. Dobble's
arrival had been subsequent to mine; but putting up as he did at the
"Royal Hotel," and dining at the ordinary there with the widow, he had
made her acquaintance before I had. I saw, however, that if I allowed
him to talk about me, as he could, I should be compelled to give up all
my hopes and pleasures at Leamington; and so I determined to be short
with him. As soon as the lady had gone into the hotel, my friend Dobble
was for leaving me likewise; but I stopped him and said, "Mr. Dobble, I
saw what you meant just now: you wanted to cut me, because, forsooth, I
did not choose to fight a duel at Portsmouth. Now look you, Dobble, I
am no hero, but I'm not such a coward as you--and you know it. You are
a very different man to deal with from Waters; and I WILL FIGHT this
time."

Not perhaps that I would: but after the business of the butcher, I knew
Dobble to be as great a coward as ever lived; and there never was any
harm in threatening, for you know you are not obliged to stick to it
afterwards. My words had their effect upon Dobble, who stuttered and
looked red, and then declared he never had the slightest intention of
passing me by; so we became friends, and his mouth was stopped.

He was very thick with the widow, but that lady had a very capacious
heart, and there were a number of other gentlemen who seemed equally
smitten with her. "Look at that Mrs. Manasseh," said a gentleman (it
was droll, HE was a Jew, too) sitting at dinner by me. "She is old,
and ugly, and yet, because she has money, all the men are flinging
themselves at her."

"She has money, has she?"

"Eighty thousand pounds, and twenty thousand for each of her children.
I know it FOR A FACT," said the strange gentleman. "I am in the law,
and we of our faith, you know, know pretty well what the great families
amongst us are worth."

"Who was Mr. Manasseh?" said I.

"A man of enormous wealth--a tobacco-merchant--West Indies; a fellow of
no birth, however; and who, between ourselves, married a woman that is
not much better than she should be. My dear sir," whispered he, "she
is