Litchfield enquirer., 1872-01-18
TAE EXPERIENCES OF A BARRiS-
 TER-No. 3al [ The Contested Marriage.

E
 | had inst escaped to my chambers one winter afternoon from a heavy trial 'fat bar" in the Kings Bench, at Westminster, and was boring over a case upon which an "opinion" was urgently solicited, when my clerk entered with q letter which he had been requested to deliver by lady, who had called twice before during the day for tho purpose of seeing me. Fexed at the interruption, I almost snatched the letter from the mans hand, hastily broke the seal, and to my great surprise found it was from my excellent old friend Sir Jasper Thornely of Thornely Hall, Lan- cashire. It ran as follows:-
 "MY DEAR -, The bearer of this note is a lady whom l am desirous of serving to the utmost extent of my abili- ty. That she is really the widow she rep resents herself to be, and her son conse- quently heir to the magnificent estates now in possession of the Emsdales-you remember how they tripped mp my heels at the last election for the borough of -lI have no moral dOnbt whatever; but whether her claim can be legally es- tablished is another affair. She will tell you the story herself It was heartless business; but Sir Harry, who you have no doubt heard, broke his neck ill steepie- chase about ten months ago, was sad wild dog. My advice is, look out for a sharp, clever, persevering attorney and set him upon hunt for evidence. If he succeed, l undertake to pay him thous- and pounds over and above his legal costs. He'll nose it out for that, T should think!
 Yours, truly, JASPER THoRNLEY.
 "P. S.-Emsdale's son, I have inst heard-confound their impotence lin tends, upon the strength of this accession of rpal,n.t7-, to eho,,d for the county osainst my old friend -, at the dissolution, which cannot now be far off. If you don't think one thousand pounds enough, I'll double it. A cruelty ill-used lady! and as to her son, he's the very image of the late Sir Harry Compton. In haste-J. T. l reopen the letter to enclose check for hundred pounds, which you will pay the attorney on account. They'll die hard, you may be sure. If it could come off next assizes, we should spoil them fer the county&J. T." .r
 "Assizes" -"county''- Sir Harry Comp ton" involuntarily murmured, as I fin ished the persual of my old friends inco- herent epistle. What on earth can the eccen- tric old fOx-hunter mean?' ''ShOw the lady ill, 1 added in a louder tone to the clerk. She presently appeared, accom- panied by remarkably handsome boy about six years of age, both attired in deep mouring. The lady approached with timid, furtive step and glance, as if she were entering the den of some grim ogre, rather than the quiet study of a civilized lawyer of mature age. I was at once struck by her singular and touching love- iness.. I have never seen a woman that so completely realized the highest Madon- na type of youthful, matronly beauty-its starlight radiance and mild serenity of sorrow. Her voice, too, gentle and low, had tone of patient sadness in it strange ly affecting. She was evidently person, if not of high birth, of refined manners and cultivated mind; and soon ceased to wonder at warm hearted old Sir Jasper's enthusiasm in her cause. Habitually, however, on my guard against ly, invited her first to a seat, and next to a more intelhgible relation of her business with me than could be gathered from the letter of which she was the bearer. She complied, and was soon in possession of the following facts and fancies:-
 Violet Dalston and her sister Emily had
 
 what straitened retirement with their fath- CT, Captain Dalston, at Rock Cottage, on the outskirts of a village about six miles ton, who was an enthusiastic angler, in- troduced to his home gentleman about twenty years of age, of handsome ex- whom congeniality of tastes and pursuits ho1 1o h fo6 ,4r was introduced to Violet (my interesting client) and her sister, as a Mir. Henry Grainger, the son of London merchant. The object of his wanderings through the English counties was, he said,. to recruit his health, which had become affected by too close application to business, and to gratify his taste for angling, sketching, and so on, He became frequent visitor; and the result, after lapse ofabout three months, was proposal for the hand of Violet. His father allowed him, he stated, five hundred pounds per annum; but in order not to mortally offend the old gen. tleman, who was determied, if his son married at all, it should be either to rank or riches, it would be necessary to conceal the marriage till after his death. This commonplace story had been, it appeared, implicitly credited by Captain Dalston; and Violet Dalston and Henry Grainger were united in holy wedlock-not at the church near where Captain Dalston resid- ed, but in one of the Leeds churches. The witnesses were the brides father and sister, and Mir. Bilston, a neighbor. This marriage had taken place rather more than seven years since, and its sole fruit was the fine-looking boy who accompa- nied his mother to my office. MT. Grain ger, soon after the marriage, persuaded the Dalstons to leave Rock Cottage, and take up their abode in a picturesque viii lage ill Cumberland, where he had pur- chased small house, with some garden and ornamental grounds attached. |
 Five years rolled away-not, es I could discern, too happily-when the very ire quent absences of Violet's husband i'll London, as he alleged Gall her letters to him were directed to the post office, St. Martins le Grand-til called for), were suddenly greatly prolonged; and on his return home, after an absence of more than three months, he abruptly informed the family that the affairs of his father, who was dying, had been found to be greatly embarrassed, and that nothing was left for him and them but emigration to Ameflca, WILL SUCH u1oftuS aS uAgAb De saved from the wreck of the elder Grain gers property. After much lamentation and opposition on the part of Emily Dals- ton and her father, it was finally conceded as Violet's husband wished; and the emi- grafton was to have taken place in the fol- lowing spring, Henry Grainger to follow them the instant he could wind up his fathers affairs. About three months be fore their intended departure -this very time twelyemonth, as nearly as may be- Captain Dalston was suddenly called to London, to close the eyes of an only sis ter. This sad duty fulfilled, he was about to return, when, passing towards dusk down St. James Street, he saw Henry Grainger, habited in remarkable sport. ing-dress, standing with several other gen tlemen at the door of one of the club houses. Fastening across the street to accost him, he was arrested for { minute or so by line of carriages which turned sharply out of Piccadilly; and when he dad reach the other side. young Mir. Graingel and his companions had vanished. . He