Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1873-09-19
NO. 223.
SINGULAR CONDUCT.

About the year 1706, 1 knew one Mr..
Howe, sensible well-natured man, pos
sessed OF an estate of f7O0 or fSOO per
annum; he married a young lady of
good family in the west Of England:
her maiden name was Mallet; she was
agreeable In her person and manners, and
proved very good wife. Seven or eight
years after they had been married, he rose
one morning very early, and told his wife
he was obliged to go to the Tower to
transact some particular business; the
same day, at noon, his wife received a
note from him, in which he informed her
that he was under a necessity of going to
Holland, and should probably be absent
three weeks or month. He was absent
from her seventeen years, during which
time she neither heard from him, or of
him. The evening before he returned,
whilst she was at supper, and with her
some of her friends and relations, partic-
ularly one DR.. Rose,* physician, who
had married her sister, a billet, without
any name subscribed, was delivered to
her, in which the writer requested the fa-
vor OF her to give him a meeting the next
evening in the Birdcage Walk, in St.
James's Park. When she had read her
billet. she tossed it to DIR. Rose, and laugh
ing, You see, brother" said she, :.as
old as l am, have got a gallant Rose,
who perused the note with more attention.
declared it to be Mr.. Howe's handwriting !.
this surprised all the company, and SO
much affected Mrs. Howe, that she faint
ed away: however, she soon recovered,
when it was agreed that Dr. Rose and his
wife, with the other gentlemen, and la
dies who were then at supper, should at
tend Mrs. Howe the next evening to the
Birdcage Walk. They had not been there
more than five or six minutes, when Mr..
Howe came to them. and after saluting
his friends, and embracing his wife,
walked home with her, and they lived to-
gether in great harmony from that time to
the day of his death. But the most curl
GUS part ofmy tale remains to be related.
When Howe left his wife, they lived in a
house in Jermyn street, near st. James's
church; he went no farther than to lit
tie street in Westminster, where he took
room, for which he paid five or six shil-
lings a week, and changing his name, and
Disgusting himself by wearing black
wig, Oor he was a fair man. he remained
in this habitation durihg the whole time of
his absence. He had had two children by
his wife when he departed from her, who
were both living at that time; but they
both died young in a few years after.
However, during their lives the second or
third year after their father disappeared,
Mrs. Howe was obliged to apply for an act
Of parliament to procure settlement Of her
husbands estate, and a provision for her.
self out of it during his absence, as it was
uncertain whether he was alive or dead !:
this act he suffered to be solicited and
passed, and enjoyed the pleasure of read
ing the progress of it in the votes, in a
little coflee-h house. near his lodging, which
he frequented. Upon his quitting his
house and family in the manner l have
mentioned, Mrs. Howe at first imagined,
as she could not conceive any other cause
for such abrupt elopement, that he had con-
tracted large debt unknown to her, and
by that means involved himself in difficult
ties which he could not easily surmount;
and for some days she lived in continual
apprehensions of demands from creditors,
of seizues, executions, &c. But nothing
of this kind happened; on the contrary he
did not only leave his estate quite free and
unincumbered, but he paid the bills of
every tradesman with whom he had any
dealings; and upon examining his pa
pers in due time after he was gone
proper receipts and discharges were
found from all persons, whether trades
men or others, with whom he had
any manner of transactions or money con-
Germs. Mrs. Howe, after the death of her
children, thought proper to lessen her fam
lily of servants, and the expenses of her
housekeeping; and, therefore, removed
from her house in Jermyn street to little
house in Brewer street, near Golden
Square. Just over against her lived one
Salt, corn-chandler. About ten years
after Howe's abdication, he contrived to
make an acquaintance with Salt, and was
at length in such a degree of intimacy
with him, that he usually dined with Salt
once or twice week. From the room in
which they eat, it was not difficult to look
into Mrs. Howe's dining-room. where she
generally safe and received her company !;
and Salt, who believed Howe to be a
bachelor, frequently recommended his own
wife to him as suitable match. During
the last seven years of this gentleman s
! absence, he went every Sunday to St.
James's church, and used to sit in Mr..
Salts seat, where he had view Of his
wife, but could not easily be seen by her.
After he returned home, le never would
confess, even to his his most intimate
friends, what was the real cause of such
a singular conduct; apparently, there was
none; but whatever it. was. he was GER
tainly ashamed to own it. DR.. Rose has
often said to me. that he believed his
brother Howe would never have returnedto
his wife, if the money which he took with
him, which was supposed to have been
| flOOO or f20O0, had not been all SPENT
and he must have been a good economist,
and frugal in his manner of living. other
wise his money would scarce have held
out; for imagine he had his whole for
tune by him, mean what he carried away
with him in money or bank bills. and dai.
ly took out of his bag, like the Spaniard IN
Gil Bias, what was sufficient for his ex-
penses.