The sun., 1893-03-23
CHAPTER II.

| ter the G6SCat0f laQ written 10 MlSs
Ellis, and which she had only recently
found. It was the letter which had
signed.
1 taxed my wife with the deception
she had practiced on me. was furi-
Gus, but she only laughed. swore
that l would make a clean breast OF
1t.
Still she laughed.
Nonsense" she said; you commit
ted the forgery, not 1. And you are
my husband. A husband cannot give
evidence against his wife.
/ was thunderstruck. She had mar
ried me to to close my mouth.
"Stll," cried, II can go to the law
yerS ON the other side. They Will be
able then to take some action"
Still she laughed. You'll find your
self in a very awkward position If you
do," she said.
| began to think the matter over.
saw she was right. / certainly should
have some difficulty in making people
believe that 1 forged the signature
and married her directly she got the
money without being in any way d
party to the plot.
But l felt that I had been duped-
made q catspaw. Then my long pen,
I'D anger broke forth and in a torrent
of words told the lady what thought
of her conduct.
She listened to me with a contemptu
Gus smile on her cruel thin lips.
When l had exhausted myself she
had her say.
Speaking calmly and deliberately, she
informed me that she was by no means
sorry ] had discovered the truth. IL
would save any further deception on
her part, and perhaps 1t was as wei
that we thoroughly understood each
other.
She had no desire to claim my so
ciety any longer. In fact, she very
much preferred to be her own mis-
tress No good would ever come OF
Scenes" and as we were not likely
to become more friendly as time
passed on, the best thing l could &c
was to go home again and leave hel
to manage her own affairs.
| quite agreed with her that hence
| forward there could be no common
life for us, and that evening l packed
nv pcrtmanteau and took my de-
parture, and so ended my honeymoon
l had asked for weeks holiday
and so 1 went back to my berth in the
city. and left my wife and her E3O,OUC
for good and all.
l was determined to be so far clear
as this-that if anything ever did come
| to light it should be proved that l had
no share of the spoiI-that directly
found out the truth I left the woman
undisputed mistress of her fortune and
continued to earn my own living.
| lffpp that
wrote me to meet her in London.
kept the appointment and she pro-
posed a compact. No one knew Of Oul
| marriage. She would not bear my
name and she would leave me free
from all responsibility on her behalf.
l was quite agreeable, and so it was
settled. But she insisted on proper
deed of separation in which agreed
not to molest her. l accepted the con
dition, we went to solicitors, the
| deed was drawn up and signed, and
| we parted outside the office. From
that moment I believe she went back
| into the world under her maiden name
and well, / grew mad with myself
| I grew careless, reckless, Respondent
and took to drink.
| I didn't take to it all at once. I be-
| gan, as many men do when sorrow
| and trouble come upon them, to hate
| being alone at night; and so, when the
! DAYS work was done, instead of going
| home, I loafed about the streets, and
went into bar parlors and drank, not
for drinking's sake, but to still the
gnawing pain at my heart.
From taking a little now and then,
I grew to take a good deal often.
acquired the taste for drink. The
drink habit grew on me, and fastened
it's fatal coils about me. I tried at
first to resist it. but the resistance was
a feeble one, and after the first strug-
gle l gave myself UP body and soul
| to the great curse.
| | didn't wait till evening now to dull
my brain with alcohol. drank spirits
morning. noon and night. Whenever
| / could slip out of the Office for a few
minutes l went off and had a drink. y
| It had become a necessity with me
now I had to drink to enable me to
do my work, and then I did the work
badly.
| A year after my marriage 1 was dis
| missed from my situation, and ]
thought change would do me good.
| I felt it was my one chance of shak-
ing off the fatal habit which was break
| ing down my health, and running me
body and soul. With desperate effort
| l managed after time, to wean my
| self from drink 1 tried several times,
! but broke down. but at last I sue
/ ceeded Then / said to myself that
| / would see the world. My mother
had just died, and the little capital
that came to her from the wreck of
my fathers business was mine 1t was
only q few hundred pounds, but it
| was enough to take me to Australia,
and so to Australia ! went.
| l obtained d situation over there in
the name of William Smith. I dropped
the Hengist, because in Australia it
was in the way, and I didn't want it.
| After / had been there about two
years l fell in love with young lady,
the daughter of the people who kept
the house where ] lodged. Then l be-
gan to feel the bitterness of my posi-
! ton. My love was returned. Then /
did another mad, wicked thing. |
never intended to go back to England
| again. My wife and were separated
for eyer-dead to each other. She had
| taken her maiden name again, and so
! married; married my sweet little
| Cora and I lived with her as happy as
= IlIE IObA1S hoL Shtll
would allow me to be.
| It is difficult for q man who has not
been placed in my position to under
stand how / could bring myself to act
| as Ibid.
To understand it you must take into
| consideration all the circumstances and
remember that ] had never had any
love for the woman who had marred
my life by making me her dupe. had
never known one moment of the hap
| piness of married life with her, and
| rebelled against the idea of growing
| old, robbed by her trickery Of the so
lace of loving woman's companion-
| ship.
My position was desperate one-the
| step ] took to remedy it was des-
| perate one. But persuaded myself that
| j was another man, that the husband
of Marion Ellis mad disappeared from
| the world and that the husband OF
Cora Williamson had nothing Ia COM
| mon with him. And persuading myself
thus, / refused any longer to be miser-
able, and determined to make the best
L ,,ory l;fa or1 Iat NV fnY1iJla coay.ot f19n