cayne

But while widely known as indefatigable, Mr Cayne is something of a rarity in the world of Wall Street workaholics.

Reports of Mr Cayne's absence from the bank in times of stress also led to more questions about the quality of its leadership.

For a time, Mr Cayne and his management team continued to laugh all the way to the bank.

At the heart of this cautionary tale sits the cigar-chomping Mr Cayne, who revelled in his firm's image as Wall Street's scrappy outsider.

By the time the frantic talks concluded last Sunday night, Mr Cayne's stake in Bear, worth more than $1bn a year ago, was reduced to $14m.

As one executive put it at the time, in terms that Mr Cayne might appreciate: "You can't fly like the eagles and poop like a canary. "

A year later, at the spring championships in Detroit, Mr Cayne was again holding his own at the bridge table.

During the interview, Mr Greenberg asked Mr Cayne about his hobbies and he told him he played bridge.

Mr Cayne, 73, laughed off the article and said in a memorandum to employees that he remained highly committed to the business.

Such was the anger directed towards Cayne that the US media reported that he had been forced to hire a bodyguard.

As Jimmy Cayne, Bear's bridge-mad chairman, might say, it had a weak hand.

Its shares continued to fall after Mr Cayne's (partial) resignation was announced.

It was the kind of approach for which the 73-year-old Mr Cayne is well known.

Mr Cayne himself shopped the bank around to big European groups in 2000 when Bear's shares and profits were lagging .

Through it all, Mr Cayne remained in Detroit and in minimal contact with Bear executives or other board members.

Then a newspaper article last week portrayed Mr Cayne as an absentee leader and questioned his personal behaviour .

Mr Cayne declined to comment, as did the bank.

Many Bear Stearns veterans began pushing hard for Mr. Cayne's ouster, arguing the firm needed a more engaged leader.

At the North American Bridge Championship in St Louis last March, Jimmy Cayne was still a rogue prince of Wall Street.

Among other things, Messrs. Schwartz and Cayne feared a deal might turn off Bear Stearns clients that competed with KKR.

"I just want to personally apologise for what has happened, " Mr Cayne, 74, said at a meeting that lasted less than 10 minutes.

A bridge tournament official said Mr Cayne, 74, could not have left the table to make phone calls even if he wanted to.

New York recovered and Mr Cayne's strategy paid off handsomely for Bear.

In the evenings Mr Cayne often plays bridge online for several hours.

Mr. Cayne, the CEO, had leaned on them to keep their divisions running smoothly.

To some, this brings disturbing echoes of Jimmy Cayne, Bear's former boss, who refused to sell until it was too late.

The trouble with that theory is that Mr Cayne would have to want to sell.

So in 2003, she started the Jason David Cayne Foundation toassist families in Monmouth County, N. J. , where she lived.

Mr Cayne was very angry and took the problems personally.

Mr Cayne, who is 74, was not the only bridge player.