The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1876-03-02
II. MATES UNMATED.

] H. MATES bNMAIED.
He laid his hat on the table, passed hii
hand care!es-ly through his disordered
hair, sat down in a halfashamed, half
defiant attitude on the seat assigned tC
him, and then almost instantly changiu Z
his temper, brought his unbandaged eye
round toward the Coroner, and winked
at him. The functionary was anxious to
get on, and disregarded this compliment.
"Mr Hurlingham," he said sit will be
necessary for me to examine you with
regard to your relations with the deceas.
ed. ] do not wish to pry needlessly into
your history, which obviously is sad
enough, while your condition excites our
pity. Perhaps you will tell us who this
woman-tbis lady-was, and when she
parted from your You recognized her
just now p
"Stop, Sir No more, beg of you,
said the witness, putting his hands over
his face and shuddering. "lf you let me
alone. will tell you as shortly as | can
her history and mine and if there is
any young man here" he added, in a fa-
miliar formula, "let him take warming
from my experience.
Very bad people have a curious habit,
in a flush of maudlin sentiment of un-
folding the details of their wickedness
with feverIsh candor for the moral ben
eft of mankind. In reading the confes-
sions which are sometimes addressed to
the public from the cell Of the condemn
ed, one cannot but feel that, to point his
moral, the criminal has stretched his
recollections beyond their real limits,
and painted his misdeeds in the strongest
colors. Perhaps there is some solace in
penning exagerations which tend at all
events, to elevate him to eminence in
the role of life which he has played
Mr.. Hurlingham's story was very sim
pie.
He was Mr.. Lucius Shafto-Grenville
! Nottingham son of the late Walter Hur-
lingham Esq, of Greystone, in Warwick
shire, who, dying before his son came of
age, left the latter fine country proper
ty Of CA, 600 year. Nineteen years since
he had married Heleda Conistoun, daugh-
ter of Lord Newmarket a woman of great
beauty, cleverness and ambition. He was
disposed to country life, she to the pleas
ures of fashionable society. In time this
led to misunderstanding quarrels, es-
arrangements. He used to leave her in
their city house and retire to the coun-
! try, where his time was spent between
hunting and brooding over the disap-
pointment Of their marriage She, on
/ the other hand, keenly resented his in
difference, and dispised him for his lack
! of ambition. Heaven had never meant
them for one another, and each was too
proud to make concessions which have
sometimes brought happy community
/ out of ill-assorted unions.
One daughter had come of the mar
riage, beautiful as her mother and be-
| loved of both. After a while his wife's
extravagant expenditure began seriously
to embarrass him. He implored her to
retire into the country. When she saw
there was no help for it, she went; but
she resigned herself only when it was in
evitable, and she had already tasted the
corroding anxieties of failure and narrow
means But her modification at their
retirement, and his at his embarrass-
ments, found vent in frequent recrimina-
tions; and both sought in this crisis of
their fate a deadly consoler. He threw
himself into the widest society of the
county She, on her part, went wherever
excitement could be found. One day,
when she had gone to the races with
party of gentlemen, Mr.. Hurlingham en-
tered her boudoir. A key was lying on
the table beside lace handkerchief evil
IDENTITY forgotten. 1t was the key Of a
small cupboard safe. Curiosity led him
to open it, and he learned in the same
/
weak as he. There were the brandy and
glass and empty bottles, showing she had
contracted no temporary taste, and there
also were letters which clearly proved
her to have been guilty of worse sins.
One meeting took place, in which those
two people owned to each other their
mutual wrongs and injuries-one meet
ing in which, after fierce recrimination,
old sympathy revived for a few short min
utes, and sorrow melted their hearts al
most to repentance. But from that meet
| ing each returned to the consoling slim
ulant, and hople fed that home forever.
| Two days afterward Mrs. Hurlingham
disappeared with an officer, having placed
| her child in some retreat which baffied
her husbands inquiry.
In the four years that ensued without
/ a meeting, the remnant of his property
he'd gone in gambling and drink, and he
passed through that state which is the
/ precursor of vagrancy-living on his
1 friends From bad to worse, from gen
| tleman to blackguard, from blackguard
/ to cad, from cad to a scottish outcast
had that man steadily drunk his way
downward, day by day, night by night
possessed by hot, relentless demon of
/ thirst. to satisfy which he would work
while he was able, or borrow, or beg, or
steal-through the snaky fires of deliri-
um tremens, wrecking the noble frame
/ God had given him, and testing its mar
yelous tenacity, until it was well-nigh
/ incredible that the machinery of life
| should hold together, ami the trembling
/ fibres obey any instruction of the leth-
/ argic soul.
How low he had fallen One day he
met a well-dressed, bright checked, mid
| dle-aged woman in the street still hand
some, and stopped her. She had a gen
/ tleman with her
] Helena!
She slipped a half sovereign into his
/ hand and turned away from the seedy-
looking vagrant. lie had taken an aims
from his own wife.
He followed her to her home" and
noted it. That evening her ten shillings
went down his throat The next morn
ing he was at her door, forced his way
into her rooms, and, between threats and
entreaties knowing the vile profess ion
she was following, he agreed with her, in
consideration OF a regular payment, to
let her alone For two years he lived
thus. One thing he could never ascer-
tain. Where was his child? His wife
defied him with imprecations to endeavor
TO find out. But his cunning had devel
oped with the loss Of better intellect lie
did find out. and was on the point of re-
claiming the girl, for God knows what
fate, when her mothers vigilance out
witted him. From that time she had
evaded him. He was told to write to q
certain tradesman' in Noting Hill, and
did SO, receiving replies, as we have seen
but the letters were taken away secretly
and he could never discover her where
N-.uVv