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For, while he fascinated many, there were not a few who

distrusted him. He was very nearly blackballed at a West End club

of which his birth and social position fully entitled him to

become a member, and it was said that on one occasion, when he

was brought by a friend into the smoking-room of the Churchill,

the Duke of Berwick and another gentleman got up in a marked

manner and went out. Curious stories became current about him

after he had passed his twenty-fifth year. It was rumoured that

he had been seen brawling with foreign sailors in a low den in

the distant parts of Whitechapel, and that he consorted with

thieves and coiners and knew the mysteries of their trade. His

extraordinary absences became notorious, and, when he used to

reappear again in society, men would whisper to each other in

corners, or pass him with a sneer, or look at him with cold

searching eyes, as though they were determined to discover his

secret.