midnight
That was a name somewhat familiar to readers of American newspapers even before its bearer was fairly out of college . The publicity it then attained -LRB- partly due to young Harman 's conspicuous wealth -RRB- attached to some youthful exploits not without a certain wild humour . But frolic degenerated into brawl and debauch : what had been scrapes for the boy became scandals for the man ; and he gathered a more and more unsavoury reputation until its like was not to be found outside a penitentiary . The crux of his career in his own country was reached during a midnight quarrel in Chicago when he shot a negro gambler . After that , the negro having recovered and the matter being somehow arranged so that the prosecution was dropped , Harman 's wife left him , and the papers recorded her application for a divorce . She was George Ward 's second cousin , the daughter of a Baltimore clergyman ; a belle in a season and town of belles , and a delightful , headstrong creature , from all accounts . She had made a runaway match of it with Harman three years before , their affair having been earnestly opposed by all her relatives -- especially by poor George , who came over to Paris just after the wedding in a miserable frame of mind .