The Cotton Factory Times. — 1889-11-08 (Manchester, Greater Manchester, England)

CHAPTER XXXIII. IRE WONDERS OF SURGERY.  " Thus was George Haversham saved from suffering a murderer's fate. kicarcely realieeee his danger at first, it gradually came home to him fii his hiding-place with terrible force. Detectives were scouring all England trying to find him. That fatal diary was sufficient to hang him. He knew not how it came upon the scene of murder; but it not only stamped him as the murderer by reason of its being found near the dead body, but in its leaves was recorded the hate he held for the victim, and a threat that he would yet be forced to murder Gray, both to rid his wife of the man's disagreeable attentions and save himself froru betrayal. "Every day the lad Simpson carried messages between the anxious wife and the fugitive husband. But the search finally became so close, and the web of evidence so strong, that Lilian advised him to make his way indirectly to America, where she hoped in some way to join him. It required the persuasion of several days to induce him to leave without first saying good-bye. The day finally came when he cut loose from all safe means of communicating with her and disappeared, it seemed to her, from her life. She was preparing to follow when the terrible strain under which she had lived for a fortnight gave way. She fell ill of a fever, and there were beim to her twin daughters. "I had been at her side every hour since I corn. mitted the deed that promised to blight her life. There were times when I almost worked my courage up to the point of making full confession and ending all by suicide. But almost was not quite. That must be my final course, I said to myself, if it ever becomes necessary to save my brother's life. But when I considered my brother's freedom and his wife's happiness as a return for my life it did not seem enough to call for the sacrifice. At the best those two could never live safely together in the knowledge of the world and. against the oath-bound vow of Clinton to kill George Haversham if he ever became the husband of his daughter. " So I made what recompense I could in devoting my skill and my care to nursing the dangerously sick wife and mother back to life and consciousness. The two girl babies did not appear to be equally endowed physically. One was perfect and healthy, the other was defective in bodily form, and did not seem to have the vitality to sustain life for a week. I turned it over to my friend, the old surgeon, and a poor widow who lived near his office. The old man was interested in the baby, and expressed his desire to make some surgical experiments by which he believed the physical deformities might be removed. 1, too, grew interested, and some of the fear which still followed me was temporarily lost in the old love of the profession of surgery. I argued to the old nurse who was in attendance on Mrs. Haversham that the imperfect babe would most likely die, and that was a good reason for keeping its possibly brief existence a secret from the mother. She had one child which, on her recovery, she could happily take away with her to America. Her mother's love could centre on the favoured one. If the other lived and showed lasting vitality, I, the aunt, could restore it in time. If it died, as was possible, that much grief, at least, could be saved the already heart-broken WOlll4ll. "Thus it was that the secret of the second child's existence was kept by four people. When Mrs. Haversham returned to consciousness she was rejoiced to find the one daughter by her side. Two weeks later she sailed for America, as happy as was possible for the wife of a fugitive, and wholly unconscious that she had given life to a being left behind her in England. "After her departure, I devoted my days to the deformed baby. The old surgeon and I spent hours at its bedside, and in the course of time performed many delicate surgical operations, watching the baby's powers of endurance very carefully. We were astonished to find its vitality greater than we bad expected. One by one the physical blemishes disappeared before my old preceptor's surgical skill, until one day we found lying in its humble crib before us as perfectly-formed a child as a fond mother might wish to press to her bosom. Then it was that we decided the child should be restored to Mrs. Haversham. I consented to take it to her, and, accompanied by the widow in whose hut it was reared, I sailed for New York. On the journey across I began to realise that all the love loft in my heart had gone out to this helpless child, and I asked myself why I ehould not keep it. "Before we landed in New York my mind was fixed, and I kept the child. She was named Laura. Arriving in New York, I sent the widow back to England on the next vessel that sailed. Then 4 proceeded to change the appearance of my sex, and donned male attire, which has never since been laid aside in the presence of the world. " Six years were spent by me in New York city, during a part of which time I obtained valuable practical experience in surgery. The child of my strange adoption grew into a healthy, well-developed little girl, but the painful fact had impressed itself  upon me that she was a deaf mute. Much of the pleasure I had expected from her childish prattle was thus denied me. I, however, employed a skillful teacher of mutes, and had her given as line an education as was possible for those of her afflicted kind to receive. In 1855 I opened an office in New York city, on one of the side streets, near Broadway, and soon found myself possessed of a lucrative practice in surgery, and my fortune seemed secure."