Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1898-08-18
CHAPTER V

portentous gravity that he is fain to OBJ
serve it.
Anything the matter? he inquiries,
curiously.
Matter enough is the answer. 'Ive
kept lodging 'ouse now, on and off, for
the last two-and-thirty year, but never
in all my horned days did I ave such a
81 disgraceful scene on my premises as took
Il place ere last night"
Then she tells him the whole story,
4 winding W with the statement that De-
las left her husband. Almost before
she finishes Mr.. Moray has reached the
third landing. He turns the handle of his
brothers door and walks in. James is
seated at the table, only partially sober,
with his head bowed down upon his out
stretched arms.
"HullS" exclaims William Moray,
why, what's the matter now, Jem? The
Old woman down stairs has been giving
me garbled account of your wife having
run away from you-but it isn't true,
surey?'
Cursed if l know rejoins the other
She amt here-that's very certain
How did it happen? Tell me all about
it,
Il don't-know how it happened She
aggravated ME to that extent last night
that she drove me to take drop more
I. than was good Tor me, l suppose, and l
didn't wake till this afternoon, and then
she had been gone for hours-so the old
cat tells me-
"She can't intend to remain away"
Cant say, I'm sure! l think she
threatened me with something of the kind
last night. Didn't you hear herr"
Yes; but | never imagined she was in
earnest. Women say so many things they
don't mean when they are in a passion
She's gone off, probably, to try and fright
en- you. She's sure to come back again.
if it's only to see the child
But she has taken the child with her
and every one of his clothes and all her
own, besides every shilling we had in the
house. It's cruel Of her. says James, re-
lapsing into the fearful state which so
often succeeds drunkenness, ''to leave me
all alone here without a blessed coin in
my pocket, and no one to see after me.
didn't think she could be so cruel."
e. William Moray whistles suggestively.
Listen to me, Jem," he then says; 81
want to speak seriously to you. Tell me
the truth. Is that woman your wife or
not?"
''Of course she's my wife!"
81 see no of course in the matter
After that terrible scrape you got into at
Glasgow you disappeared altogether from
society, and never communicated with
your family for four or five years. Then
you suddenly turn up in London, and
find you living with lady who you say
is married to you, but who is not in the
position from which men of our standing
usually choose their wives"
well! how could I help 2" grumbles
James. Il couldn't get any employment
after that cursed business in Glasgow,
and Della can make money, and how are
we to live else? You wouldn't have me
starve, would you? or break stones? If
the governor hadn't been so beastly I'M
forgiving, and cut me out of his will. l
suppose we should have been living like
other people. But anyway we were mar
ried fast enough at Chiffon, in Berwick
shire, and we've got the certificate of it
at least, Della has, for l suppose the jade
has taken it with her
do you think that she can have got an
inkling of where we took the boy last
night, and carried him off in conse-
quenceT
How can I tell: These women have
ears All rOuHu. III my experiences.
Because that is rather an important
matter to decide. You see, the case is,
James, you can't afford to part with this
woman just yet
How do you mean?'
'Well, to speak plainly-you won't sup
port yourself, and | can't support you.
Therefore you must use every possible
means to make her come back to YOU
P,I+c c1n >oo1-S
whines James. How can l make her !
She earns enough money to support her
self, and she knows how ill l am, that l
am unable to do any work or to stand
any fatigue; and if she stays away and
you won't make me an allowance. l SHAH
starve or go to the workhouse, for there
nothing else left for me.'
Hush don't talk such nonsense" in
terrupts his brother. authoritatively. 1--WE
must force Mrs Moray to return to you
and we must do it by means of the child
but she's got the child
''She has no claim to him. l think you
told me he was seven years old on his
last birthday You can legally take him
from her again.
But then l shall have to support him
and how am | to support myself?'
II do wish you would hear me to the
end, and not keep on interrupting so. The
first thing we must do is to find out your
wife's present address. That is easily ac-
complished by having her followed home
from the theater. Then you must claim
and take away the child. The mother is
certain to follow il"
But suppose she doesn't follow it -
''Then am prepared to carry OUT what
/ proposed to you last night, though l
cannot say that my wife fell in very read
lily with my views. She considers the boy
so plain And / am sure she would never
consent to receive him if she knew his
mother was az actress, or even alive. l
have represented him to her, therefore, as
motherless child Of yours by an early
and imprudent marriage, whom | am de-
slrous, in the event of your death, of
adopting as my son; and IL she allows me
TO carry out my own views concerning