or position. He receives these wares not only from treacherous

valets or maids, but frequently from genteel ruffians who have

gained the confidence and affection of trusting women.

He deals with no niggard hand. I happen to know that he paid

seven hundred pounds to a footman for a note two lines in length,

and that the ruin of a noble family was the result. Everything

which is in the market goes to Milverton, and there are hundreds

in this great city who turn white at his name. No one knows

where his grip may fall, for he is far too rich and far too

cunning to work from hand to mouth. He will hold a card back

for years in order to play it at the moment when the stake is

best worth winning. I have said that he is the worst man in

London, and I would ask you how could one compare the ruffian

who in hot blood bludgeons his mate with this man, who

methodically and at his leisure tortures the soul and wrings

the nerves in order to add to his already swollen money-bags?"

I had seldom heard my friend speak with such intensity of feeling.

24.06.2007