to telegraph home telling them to wire back what hotel she had written from possibly she did not like to do this anyway she wandered about the streets hour after hour not daring to ask her way not indeed knowing what way to ask she had not much money with her and at last she fell asleep upon a bench in the road there a policeman found her and to him she confided her story he took her to the station and the next morning she was restored to her husband who had been wandering about half the night in search of her imagining that she had committed suicide or run away with somebody else or something of the kind i am quite sure that my wife has not run away with anybody else said with a confident laugh i think it most probable that she has met with an accident and is lying in some london hospital you were on good terms when you parted from her my dear sir said i have never been on anything but good terms with my wife that is good hearing said the private brightly he had his own theory on the subject and his theory was certainly not that the price of a wife mrs had met with an accident if your wife had met with an accident and had recovered her senses she would have communicated with you yes that is so i have to my to find out whether there were any letters or message at home for me bidding him send on letters or wire to me at once you have had no reply i could not have a reply my place is several miles from a telegraph office i must give them time to get the to the house and back again and you would be addressed at my club if you have any letter or wire you will let me know at once certainly well my dear sir i don t think that i can help you further at this moment i will take steps to have all the police stations and searched what was your wife wearing oh � and then stopped short and looked at his � oh well the fact is she was wearing a gray dress and cloak and a bonnet with a gray veil he went on rather gray dress � gray cloak � bonnet with a gray veil repeated mr then looked at with a bland expression that sounds like a nurse s dress my wife was in nurse s dress look here i ll tell you all about it my father was a very rich man and several years ago he made up his mind that i must marry a woman with money i met my wife � at least my wife nursed me through a bad hunting accident and as i knew that it was perfectly hopeless to appeal to my father i married her quietly er � i was staying with my father a few weeks ago and he was taken ill i couldn t get a nurse an � you know the there has been � and i to my wife to come as his nurse oh i see and she did yes she came and was the successful not at first � no then my father seemed to take to her she was a perfect angel of patience of course murmured mr the price of a wife and he was very difficult to do for and at last he got so that he would hardly have anybody else about him but still we felt that it would never do to make him of our actual relations in fact he almost quarrelled with me because i would not propose to a certain lady and i went back to my regiment leaving my wife in charge of the case and my father eventually died did he die suddenly well yes at least it was almost sudden but he was so very ill that it was little more than a question of time according to his doctor he had made a point of my wife s taking a drive every afternoon and the under keeper s mother a very respectable person sat with him while she was gone she always stayed with him while my wife got her proper sleep � or i should more truly say some sleep � and that afternoon when she came in she found that he had sent the woman down to have tea in the hall and when she came to look closer she found that my father was dead i see and you have come in for the property i have come in for the bulk of the property i am the elder son then your wife left park before you yes i wished to join her at home and to bring her back as my wife i didn t see the necessity of servants and everybody knowing that she had been my wife all along naturally not very naturally not said the was your wife much upset oh so � upset returned she reproached herself most bitterly that we had in a measure deceived the old man and declared that she should never be happy again and a good deal more to the same effect of course not as between her and me naturally not returned mr well mr i will do the best i can if your wife is in london i will that we shall find her possibly you will have a letter or a during the course of the day such as will set all your doubts and fears at rest i hope so i am sure with all my heart i the price of a wife hope so and be sure that you let me know if you do have any news and if i want you where shall i find you at the army and navy 