CHAPTER XXV.
Observer, Rōrahi 2, Putanga 30, 9 Paengawhāwhā 1881, Page 317
Mō tēnei niupepa
CHAPTER XXV.
Every afternoon, about two o'clock, Brownpath made his appearance, and seated at Julia's side, on the sofa in the drawing-room, he spoke to her of his early youth, of his entrance into life, of his struggles and errors. *'I have been reproached," he said to her, "with living from hand to mouth, with not
liaving made for myself any position in the ■world, with having no dividends to draw, with the absence of official employment, and Avith Leing useless to everybody, myself in particular. The accusation is just. If I had my life to "begin over again, I should take a different view of things. Destitute of advice, and dependent on myself alone, I lived as I saw everybody living around me, and badly did I live until the day 1 met you. " "And are you working now ?" asked Eleanor, affectionately. "Not yet, but I am on the look out for something to do." "Then how do you live? I have a right to ask now that I am your confidant." "Oh, at the present time," " living is not a Tery expensive business to me. When I wake, my first thought is to ask myself when I shall you to-day? Then I dress and breakfast quietly, and fill up the rest of the time before coming here by perambulating the streets. I stay with you until you send me off, and then I think of you for the remainder of the day." So their lives ran on until an accident, easy to be foreseen, hajipened to disturb them. Since her husband s death, Eleanor had been in the habit of reading the newspapers, being interested in knowing everything that might be said of the tragedy. One morning she let fall the broadsheet, she was glancing over, and suddenly exclaimed, " It is infamous !" and she called Mary. " Read," she said to her, in a state of excitement. As she spoke, she pointed out a paragraph on the subject of the now fast approaching trial of Burritt. After giving an account of how the crime was committed, the article went on to say — "Burritt was madly in love with a woman called Carrotty Sal. ~ He discovered her embracing Hardcastle, followed the latter, and killed him in a lit of jealousy." "Do you mean to say," exclaimed Eleanor, "that in my absence my husband associated ■with that creature ?" "He was killed a few minutes after leaving her." "It is impossible." "It is only too true." "You possess evidence of what you state ?" "Alas ! Yes, madanie." For three days, Eleanor denied herself to Brownpath, but she did not shut herself up in her house. At the end of three days, Brownpath, pale and downcast, at length found Eleanor at home, and visible. "Ah !" he cried, "why have you once more Tjanisked me from your presence ? Why ?" She interrupted him by saying, "Do not complain. I assure you that it would be unjust on your part. You have no reason to complain."
