A Sydney Romance.

Evening Star, Issue 8772, 12 March 1892, Page 4

A Sydney Romance.

In January of 1891 o firm of Sydney solicitors received instructions from . their London principals to hunt up a party named Lemonby, or, to be more precise, George Herbert Lemonby. With the lettor of instructions was a bank draft for L3OO for certain costs of advertising, passage money to London, or rather Birmingham, and law costs. The Sydney solioitors were also sup plied with photos, facts, dates, details, and such information at would placo identification beyond a shadow of a doubt. Immediately advertisements were inserted in all the Australian newspapers containing a conspiouous " personal" column. Weeks and months passed by and no tidings were received of the man inquired for. The London principals wrote out to Sydney, notifying that they were instituting inquiries in America and South Africa, and urging greater Bcarch in the colonies. Fresh advertisements were thorefore insorted the other day in the hope of somo information of Lemonby, dead or alive, being supplied. There was bettor luck this time. A Salvationist dropped into the solicitor's office the other day and gave a clue. He said that some weeks ago a man and his wife, tho former giving the name of G. fl. Lomonby, had received somo food, etc., at Lower Alexandria, but that they had since been ejected for non-payment of rent, and that he had not seen them for over a fortnight. This clue was followed up, with the result that he discovered tho individual he wanted lying ill with fever in a wretched tenement. Having mado his mission known in guarded language, Mrs Lemonby said to him: " Make us little nofce as possiblo, for he's very ill"; and, bursting iuto tears, she added imploringly : " But you won't turn him out, will you ?" Where the sick man lay what a scene presented itaelf! No furniture—nothing to till tho melancholy vacancy but the hollow-eyed invalid stretohed on a pilo of rags in a corner of the room. He turned his fevered eyes on the intruder, and prayed to be allowed to remain where ho was until he died—from disorders duo entirely to starvation and want of necessary comfort. Tho clerk asked the man his name, the maiden name of h!3 wife, who married them, tho ship he came to Australia in, and various other family and private questions. These wore all answered correctly—that is, they tallied with the instructions. Then the clerk compared their faces with photos and detected similarity. He asked them if they had any photoß, and they had, for the bailifl had not sold these, as they were valueless Somo of these were exactly similar—that is, from the same plates as the pictures he drew from his pocket book. The clerk was now satijfied ho had discovered the right man. He asked the couple if they could bear to hear bad news. They assured him that no news could make them sadder or more hopeless than they were. Then tho clerk gradually unfolded a bereavement. The father of the man was dead. Ho died fifteen months ago in Birmingham. " Well, I'm not interested, and don't care," cried the invalid, almost fiercely. " But you will directly," continued the clerk. " Your father, ju3t before he died, forgave ycu for marrying this poor but respectable wife. He loft everything to his only son, and prayed for your forgiveness of him for his harshness." There was somo commotion in that little household, and when the shock of the news was over the clerk told the man that his interest in his father's estate was valued at L 55,000, and that his immediate return to Birmingham waa desired. It needs only to be added that the Lemonbya were promptly removed to healthy quarters at Redfern, where the hu3band made rapid recovery, i It seems that ho waa the only child cf a wealthy citizen of Birmingham. About eleven years ago he fell in love with a young girl, and married her ogainst his father's wishes. The angry parent disowned him in a fit of passion, and said he should never get a shilling. The young couple soon afterwards sailed for Sydney. For eleven ye.srs they had had consisttut bad luck. Ho was nearly always in ii'-hcaUh, and mostly out of work. To emphasise their troubles, they lost all their children—four—and the past four months found them in Lower Alexandria, he a member of the unemployed. All their little belongings were sold off before Christmas under a writ of distraint for rent. The week before they were discovered by the solicitor's clerk they had subsisted on less than a loaf of bread, and at the moment of discovery there was not even a crumb in the house. Lemonby is much surprissd at hia father leaving him sola legatee, as he always was satisfied he would leave every penny to oharities. He has amply rewarded the Salvationist and solicitor's clerk, and has promised to remember them both directly he takes formal possession of his fortune. Tho wife and he leave for England this month.—' Truth,'