The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-09-04 00:00:00

SUPPLEMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

room, but which had been fitted up on his marriage
as a morning-room for Ellen.

" Ellen," said Lorton, " I have sought you
this morning with the view of demanding an ex-
planation from you relative to your late very
strange and mysterions conduct ; can you venture
to assure me that you have no concealment from
me ?"

I can venture to assure you of it," replied
Ellen.

"Do you think it allowable," asked Lorton,
endeavouring to speak with great calmness,
" that a married woman should have concealment
from her husband?"

" Not in a general way," replied Ellen ; " but
in my particular case I think I am not blameable
in my conduct."
" Is your friend, Mr. Branscombe, implicated
in the matter concealed from me ?" he asked.

" I will not attempt to deceive you," said
Ellen, after a moment's pause ; "he is."
" And your secret correspondence with him,"
said Lorton, " is, I doubt not, concealed in a
closet which you so eagerly locked at my ap-
proach."
" Such is not the case, I assure you," said
Ellen, with a faint smile.
" Under these circumstances," said Lorton,
" you cannot of course object to giving me the
key." A faint exclamation of denial, and a
shudder from Ellen, denoted that her objection
to giving him the key would be very strong indeed.
" Probably," said Lorton, as a terrible thought
flashed on his mind, " your lover is concealed
within this closet, and you dread the exposure of
your disgrace."
" I give you my honour that such is not the
case," replied Ellen ; " there is nobody there."
Lorton groaned as she spoke ; he simply re-
demanded the key from Ellen, who held it closely
grasped in her hand.
" Let me prevail upon you," said Ellen, " for
your own sake, not to attempt to look into that
closet."

Ellen could not have made use of a more inju-
dicious appeal. To tell Lorton not to look into
the closet for his own sake, clearly disclosed that
something of importance was concealed there,
and had the effect of considerably increasing
Lorton's anxiety to know the worst at once At
length the footman announced " Mr. Branscombe."
" Branscombe," said Lorton, "my wife has con-
fessed to me that you are implicated with her in
keeping secret from me a matter in which it would
grieve me to be informed ; she has just implored
me for my own sake to abstain from asking her
to open yonder closet ; I call upon you to aid me
in requiring her to do so."
" I could scarcely have supposed, Lorton," said
Branscombe, very tranquilly, " that in any differ-
ence of opinion between you and your wife, I
should have taken part against the latter ; how-
ever, I comply with your wishes. Ellen, I request
you to give me the key." Ellen reluctantly com-
plied. Branscombe opened the closet and called
on Lorton to inspect it. What did Lorton be-
hold ? Pile after pile of printed paper packets,
the first edition of the " Statesman's Daughter !"
It had been the loving desire of his wife to shield
her husband from mortification and disappoint-
ment by buying up from time to time fresh por-
tions of the work, and while Lorton had imagined
that the " Statesman's Daughter" was delighting
every quarter of London and every county in
England, it was in reality " wasting its sweetness
on the desert (shelves)" of his own closet !
" But how, my dearest Ellen," exclaimed the
penitent Lorton, after his wife had faltered forth
her confession, " could you have brought about
all this semblance of popularity ? I can under-
stand the purchase of the copies, but the adver-