Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1888-02-04 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

KILLED BY HIS WIFE.  " I do think, Harold, you might let me have a little more money !" said Victoria Hale. She sat at the breakfast table, and very pretty she looked, a pout upon her cherry lips. She wore a pretty morning dress of fluted white lawn, with a breakfast cap of muslin and pink ribbons, very becoming to her clear olive skin, and large, velvety black eyes.  Her husband (though thirty years her senior) was quite as distinguished in appearance. Harold Hale was the chief book-keeper and cashier in a large private London bank, andhad been married about three months. He was beginning already to discover that his divinity was not all divine.  "More money !" he repeated. "You are unreasonable. Do I not keep you supplied with all that I have to spare 7" "But it's so very mortifying to go shopping with Mrs. Hyde-Secor and Mrs. Bonnington and have to stand by while they are- purchasing the sweetest things at such bargains." "Don't go shopping with them."  "You Will shut me up, then, from all amusement and society ?" "Nonsense, Vic. You know better than that.' Here are your pretty house, your garden, and your little conservatory to amuse you." "One cannot be contented with the same thing for ever."  "If you wanted a perpetual change you should have married a millionaire."  "Don't be cross, Harold," said Victoria, coaxingly. " Rut you know all our neighbours at Richmond here are well-to-do, and I don't want to be left behind. I shall be mortified to death if I can't have a croquet party in August." "I have no especial objection to that," said her husband. "I suppose it need not necessarily be ex. pensive."  "And I need another new lace parasol terribly. And oh, Harold, Mrs. Lacy says I may use her creamcoloured ponies while she is away at Bournemouth. Our stable room will do for them if we turn Polly out to grass. Isn't it kind other ?"  daresay it's very kind," said Harold, ruefully; but you know a pair of ponies cost keeping." "And the new washing summer silk that is such a u•gain at T—'s ?" "Yee, yes, yes ; only remember, Vic, that there a limit to our funds."  "I will not forget that." Mrs. Hale, satisfied with her husband's reluctant consent, gave the croquet party, whirled down the suburban roads and into the park, with the borrowed ponies; bought the lavender summer silk and a love of a lace shawl to go with it; accepted an invitation to visit Windsor Park, and later on go to St. Leonardo with a party of gay young folks, and cried all night because her husband gave out a hint about extravagance. . ..  "Vic, you don't understand," said Harold. We must study economy or we shall go to ruin." " Economy !" retorted Victoria; "I am sick of the very word." Her husband turned silently away. It was hard thus to be repulsed when he had most need of sympathy. 'They tell me," said old Mr. Hardie, "that Halo's wife dresses the most elegantly of anyone at Hastings this season." _ . .  "What ! Hale who keeps Denny's books—young Hale ?" "Yes."  6' The deuce! How can he afford it?" 66 Ah ! that's a different matter. if I were Denny, I should keep an eye to things." . . .  " They'vehad some serious lessons already," said the other. "That burglary a month back cost them as good as £2000." "Any trace of the burglar ?" No. The safe must have been opened by skeleton  "Humph !" grunted old Hardie. "If the cashier was anyone but Hale, that Denny trusts as he would trust himself—"  "Oh, nonsense, nonsense" cried the other old gentleman. "There's such a thing as being too suspicious! You'll be saying next that Hale is at the head of a gang of robbers." "He may be, for all that I know," replied Mr. Hardie. _  Meanadule, Reginald Denny began to be strangely mistrustful; not of Harold Hale, but others about him. - - - -  "Hale," said he, "sometimes I think those robbers are nearer home than any one imagines, though the police declare the whole thing a mystery." 'Do you, six ?" A ghastly look came over the man's features. " I think it quite impossible."  "At all events, it is worth looking into," said Denny. " The circle of suspicion seems to be narrowing down, and we continue to miss cash most inexplicably, and notes as well. Do you mind sitting up for a night or two ?" "Not at all, sir, if you desire it." "I'm sorry to ask it of you, as you don't seem weh this last week or two—"  "Pray don't mention it. I am well enough," said Hale, almost impatiently. It was the first night of his vigil—a dark, tempestuous night, with rain falling outside. Reginald Denny had gone home, but some unanalysed notion induced him to return quietly and by stealth toward one o'clock in the morning. Letting himself in by his own private key, with a word of reassurance to the alarmed watchman, he noiselessly entered the banking-rooms. .  The safe where the money and valuable papers were kept was wide open. Kneeling before it, with both hands full of notes, hurriedly transferring some to an open leather case on his right hand, and putting others back was Harold Hale himself.  In an instant Reginald Denny's iron grasp was on his arm.  So I have got at the root of the matter at last," said he, in a deep, stern voice. "So you are the burglar, Harold Hale !" White with rage and dismay, Hale sprang to his feet and confronted the man whom he had so long been systematically robbing. "You have discovered me," he cried in stifled accents, "but you shall never convict me." There was a vivid flash, the report of a pistol, and the next instant Harold Hale lay dead before the eyes of the horrified banker.  It was not his own fault so much as it was his young wife's," people said, when the ugly facts connected with Harold Hale's suicide leaked out. "lie was weak, but not naturally wicked, and she persecuted him mercilessly for money. Poor girl ! her dress and fashion and luxuries were dearly bought." And Victoria Hale, sitting pale and agonised in her deep widow's weeds, knew as well as if supernatural hands had written it in fiery letters on the wall, that she had murdered her husband !