A RUNAWAY WIFE

Golden Bay Argus, Volume VI, Issue 73, 21 October 1897, Page 2

A RUNAWAY WIFE

" No, Lupton, I canuot accompany you tonight," said Bromley, my fellow-clerk, decidedly. " My landlady is giving a little supper to a few friends, and I promised to sing a song or two."

All ! Mrs. Graves is young and good-look-ing ; take caie and not get entangled in any scandal. The young people in your street are notorious gossips, and are not to particular how they allow imagination to supplement fact when a spicy bit of scandal is on the wings of rumour," I remarked. " In this case your moralising is out of place. Mrs. Graves is simply devoted to her absent husband, for their marriage was the result of a love match. Her husband's parents reside in the same street, and are to be at the party this evening. It was her mother-in-law who advised her to have a couple of young men lodgers, to jrive her something to do. There is no other .reason ; fox Graves sends he £25 a quarter, aud the house is their own property." " Tou hare soon made friends with your landlady, evidently," I retorted. But Bromley merely smiled, he was a goodtempered chap, and not easily provoked. When be returned from dinner he brought "Vrith him an invitation from Mrs. Graves to 'make one of her little party, and as I had only thought of going to the theatre to see G. V. play " Othello " I accepted.

The party passed off wirhout a hitch. My chum had responded twice to the request of tho landlady, but on being asked the third time he begged to be excused, aud proposed that I should oblige the company. I sang a comic '" medley," my own composition, describing %he adventures of a bashful bachelor in search of a wife, the eleven verses having each a different iune—the then favourite songs of the day. One 'stanza referred to the bachelor's trouble with & supposed young widow, whose husband unexpectedly turned up at an extremely inopportune moment, and I noticed that Mrs. Graves "didn't seem to like it." But she soon recovered her wonted equanimity, and when I left the bouse she hoped I would join my fellowclerk at tea sometimes on Sundays. As he hoarded with her the invitation was her own.

One morning, about a fortnight after the party, Bromley came to the office leoking so 3;rave and quiet t'_at I asked him if he were

"Not exactly; but I have been upset. I ■will tell you all about it, Hatry, and have your opinion. I went home rathi r earlier than usaul .3»st night, although it was nearly eleven o'clock. Thinking the other lodger and Mrs. Graves would be in bed, I let myself in very quietly with ray latch-key and walked straight into the hack parlour, where I knew I should find my ;supper laid out. What do you think I saw, seated iu my armchair? A young fellow who anight be my twin brother, so closely did he resemble me. And what seemed all the mere iastoundiiig, his dress was exactly like mine—

; the suit I am now wearing, although, of course, it is common enough. He was fast asleep, and had evidently been making free with a bottle . of old Scotch from the sidi board, the identical •bottle Mr. Hunt sent me the other day. I tried . to rouse him, but failed, although I made noise enough to fetch Mrs. Graves downstairs. The 'moment she saw my Dromio 1 thought she would hsve fainted. i " Oh, Mr. Biomley, for Heaven's sake, do aot say a word about the presence of this man in ' this house !" she pleaded ; but as I felt positive lie was masquerading as William Bromley for -.--no good purpose I declined to promise without 4 full explanation, which she would not give i .me. took my supper into the kitchen, aud j *te it there, leaving the landlady and the

"Harry?" " The sooner you quit the better ; that is my opinion," I replied.

" Yes. I'll leave to-day if I can get other

lodgings." "Nothing easier. My landlady has a bedroom Jo spnro now." " Thank you ; but Mrs. Robinson is a bit too /straight-laced for me. I should not care for a lecture every time I happened to be home after "eleven, neither could I put up with cold dinners on Sundays." Bromley managed to " suit himself " during ;the dinner honr, and in the evening left the bouse of the hypocritical Mrs. Graves, who again endeavoured to extract a promise from 'him that he would never reveal to anyone the \presence of a strange man in her house. He stold her plainly tbat such a promise would be luseless, seeing that he had already made uie acquainted with all the circumstances." Several weeks elapsed, and we bad given up mentioning the name of Mrs. Graves, when a telegram came for her, sent from Plymouth by

her husband, announcing his arrival at that port.and that he hoped to be at home sometime next day. Soon after the office was opened next morning Mrs. Graves's other lodger, a «taid respectable man of 40 or so, the managing clerk to a firm of solicitors, and who rented Mrs. Graves's front parlour and bedroom, came to the office, and asked Bromley if he knew aught of Mrs. Graves, who had not been at home during the night. He had ascertained thiit she had left the house soon after receiving the telegram from her husband, taking a small portmaateau with her.

Bromley knew nothing, and said so. but he might have told the inquirer tbat he had •troug suspicions as to the reasons of the landlady's flight. Not wishing to be mixed up in any way with the scandal, Bromley did not go near the house of his late landlady, but he was not destined to escape altogether. On the day following the return of Mr. Graves that gontlemau walked into the office and requested a private interview with my friend, to which he only consented on the condition that I might be presc nt.

It seemed that inquiries in the street had resulted in the returned colonist being made acquainted with the fact that Bromley had suddenly left his lodgings, and Mr. Graves fancied tbat my fellow-clerk might be able to throw some light upon the disappearance of his wife.

" I know nothing whatever about Mrs. Graves, and can give you not the slightest idea why she has gone away," said Bromley.

" Why did you leave the house so suddenly ? You went in the middle of the week, and that is unusual, is it not ?" asked Graves. I was very greatly prepossessed in favour of the man, whose demeanour was so quiet and free from excitement, and decided that it would be best to make him acquainted with the reasons asked for. " Tell him all, Bromley," I said. "It is only right he should know, and I feel ture he will not mix you up in the affair," I said. And Bromley at once acted on ray advice, describinghis finding c f the stranger in the back

parlour. " Thank you, Mr. Bromley, for your confidence. You were right in leaving, but I cannot yet believe that Lucy has been false to me. Until I am convinced of that, I will take no steps. Good-day, gentlemen."

" That is a husband among a thousand," remarked Bromley. " Most men would have condemned the missing wife without hesitation, and have returned at once to the Cape. I sinci rely hope that bis confidence will prove to have been justified." That evening a noted local detective, named Berk' tt, waylaid my fellow-cleric on the way

from the office, aud sought to obtain further information respecting Mrs. Graves,the visitors Bromley had seen at the house, and so on, but Bromley had nothing further to tell. Beckett advised the husband to advertise in the papers, but to this Mr. Graves would not consent ; he wished to keep the affair as quiet as possible. He took up his residence with his mother, and the house was locked up ; but though the flight of Mrs. Graves formed the subject of gossip iu the neighbourhood for the usual nine days it was soon dropped.

We were about to close the office one evening about a month after the disappearance of my chum's landlady when a mutual acquaintance of ours, a reporter on the st:eff of a local paper, came in rather hurriedly. "Awfully glad I've caught you, Mr. Bromley; feared you would have gone. Read this ; it is from our Clitheroe correspondent." The paragraph read as follows : " At the police court to-day a respectablyattired young fellow, giving the name of John Smith, was charged with sleeping out. He was discovered asleep on the farm of Mr. George Aihworth, farmer, Worston, at one o'clock on Sunday morning, and as several daring burglaries have recently taken place in that vicinity, and Smith could give no account of himself, he was taken into custody. When brought to Glitberoe by train this morning, Mr. Chides Turner, telegraph clerk at Clitheroe station, identified the accused man as a telegraph cle.-k named Bromley, stationed at Preston, but after closer scrutiny decided that he had made a mistake, although the resf mblance of the prisoner to Mr. Bromley was very remarkable. Mr. Turner was also strongly of opinion that Mr. Bromley's ordinary attire had been imitated, doubtless, as the police are inclined to believe, for purposes that will not bear the light. Prisoßer was remanded for a week, to enable the police to make further inquiries." " Funny affair, isn't it ?" remarked the reporter, as Bromley handed back the MS.

" Oae of those curious resemblances for which no one can satisfactorily account," replied Bromley. " Besides, Turner is notoriously short-sighted, and depends more upon his ears than his eyes when receiving a message on the instrument. At the same time I am obliged to you, Mr. Morton, for letting me see this."

" I suppose we must delete all reference to the chap's resemblance to you, eh ?" asked the reporter. " There is no reason why it should not go in, so far as I am concerned. I am not thinskinned, and it is just as well that folks should know that there is a fellow going about with a suspicious resemblance to me. He may have got credit iu my name,and that report will stop it, by putting people on their guard." " Just so," responded Morton. " Good night." But, after the reporter had departed, Bromley said to mo : "If Mrs Graves happens to :ee that report something will come of it." " Possibly. Do you intend to make any movement ?"

"I shall go over to Clitheroe to-morrow, und, if possible, have an interview with the fellow. fhe has a spark of manliness in hitu he will give me such iuformation as will enable Mr - Graves to discover the whereabouts of his wife. It is with that hope that I shall go to Clitheroe."

But his visit, fortunately, as it turned out, had to be-postponed for some days, and it was not until the clay previous to the le-examina-tion of John Smith that Bromley saw him.

On his arrival at tho Clitheroe Police Station ho hsd some difficulty iu obtaining a private interview with his prototytffc, " The fact of the mattelVa, Mr. Bromley, the fellow is a convict, who was sentenced to 15 years' transportation only two years ago. Sent out to Swan River, his previous good character and exemplary conduct on board ship resulted in his being liberated on ticket-of-leave six mouths after his arrival. The foolish fellow has returned, and will now have to pay the penalty, for it is a certainty he will have to serve his sentence iu an English prison. He can never do you any harm again, eveu supposing he has made illegal use of his likeness to you. Do you know if ho was aware of Ihe resemblance ?"

" Oh, dear ; yes. he knew it well enough. Give me your promise of secrecy, sergeant, and I will confide in you. The matter does not touch your duty as a constable." " All right ; go ahead."

Bromley proceeded to make the sergeant acquainted with the story of Mrs. Graves and her husband.

" I'll wager all I possess that the scamp has some hold upon that poor woman ! But how to

get at the truth Ido not see. As you say, if the fellow is worthy of the affeotion of such a

woman he will help you." " John Smith " was fetched from the cell and confronted with Bromley, to his evident astonishment.

" So you've spotted me, eh ?" he said, with a laugh. " Not for the first time ; I found you ashep and drunk in my sitting-room one night. I was one of Mrs. Graves's lodgers," said Bromley, quietly. The man started, but did not reply. " Do you know what has been the result of your secret visit to the house of that lady ?" asked Bromley, after a pause. " She has fled from her home and her husband, and thus has wrecked her future happiness." " Her husband ? Was that why she went away ? Poor Lucy ! She has paid dearly for her kindness to me."

" But why did you go near her ?" " 1 wanted money ; and if a chap as is hard up may not go to bis only sister " " Your sister ?" asked Bromley,

" Yes, my sister. If she could have let me have enough to take me to New York, and a couple of pounds to start afresh with when 1 got there, I should not have been obliged to make up as one of the lodgers to d\ ceive the neighbours. But my sister had deposited her spare cash in a building society, and the money was not procurable at short notice. It must have been you finding me in the house that caused her to send me away ; and thon her husband coming home made her fear he would discover that she had a convict brother, and so she fled from him. Poor Luoy !"

" On her husband's behalf I thank you for telling the truth of your relationship ; and I have no doubt he will say that uo blamo attaches to his wife. Will you see him if I send for him ?" " I hive no objection, Mr. Bromley."

Bromley wired at once for Mr. Graves, aud he left for Clitheroe by the next train. Bromley met him at the station and told him all he had learnt.

" God bless you, Mr. Bromley ; you have taken a heavy load from my heart. I knew that my wife bad done nothing tbat would kill my love for her. If I only knew where to find her."

" Possibly her brother may be able to help you," suggested Bromley.

But in this Mr. Graves was disappointed, So far as Edward Harding—the real name of the pseudo John Smith —knew, they had no relatives, and be knu-w no friends to whom Luoy would be likely to go when she left home. The publicity given to the affair so far had not been wide enough °to encourage any hope that Mrs. Graves might have seen the report of the arrest a man resembling my fellow-clerk, but the romantic history of the convict, his escape from

the colony, and bis identification by the police, would now be regarded as good " copy "by most papers, aud the increased publicity thus given to the case might result iu some communication from Mrs. Graves, 1 thought. But no such result followed. Udward Harding was sentenced to a mouth's ha d labour for vagraucy, the Home Secretary to be communicated with. The man knew what this meant, but seemed to regard his fate with indifference. This attitude must, however, have been simulated, for an hour after his sentence, when the constable deputed to convey Harding to the county gaol at Preston entered the prisoner's cell, h.i vDuod him lying on tho floor, just at the point of death.

" Strychnine.!" said the hastily summoned doctor, after a brief examination.

How the man had procured it, and, above all, how he had managed to secrete it when searched by the police, was never known. It was generally believed thatHardinghad foreseen the probability of capture, and that, in preference to a return to tbn horrors of a convict prison, he had made preparations for a speedy exit from a life tLat would be worse than death.

The suicide added stimulus to the excitement created by the arrest of the escaped convict, and the newspapers gave long accounts of the dead man's career, his fate being regarded as a condemnation of tho penal servitude system.

Police-sergeant Ray nor had promised to communicate promptly with Mr. Graves if anything transpired in connection with the prisoner likely to throw any light upon the hiding-place of Mrs. Graves. And when, within twelve hours of the appearance of the reports of the suicide in the morning papers, a veiled lady appeared at Clitheroe Police-xtation, and expressed the desire to defray tho cost of the interment of l dvvard Harding, the sergeant wired to Mr. Graves. That gentleman at once returned to Clitheroe, and arrived iu time to intercept his wife ere her departure. Had he been half an hour later, howt>ver, it is probzble the disconsolate hu:-.band would not have discovered his sensitive wife.

Mrs. Graves was coming out of the Asshelon Arms Hotel whi n her husbanel met her. It did not need a second glance to tell him that his search was ended.

" Lucy ! " he exclaimed. She would have fallen had not her husband caught hold of her. " Let me go, Charles ; my unhappy brother—"

" Has paid the penalty of his misdeeds, my darling ; but not a speck of his disgrace attaches itself to you. Do not alow Kuch morbid fancies to destroy tho happiness of our future. In that bright land where 1 have beeu sojourning we will forget the unhappiness of the past ftw weeks. I c.n understand and enter into your fears lest I should discover that your only living leh'.livo was not all you would wish him to be ; but not for a moment have I regarded his offences as any disgrace to you Lucy. Come, lot us go home." " Not to Proslou, Charles ; I cannot go there."

" Very well ; we will go to a Liverpool hotel, and stay there until I have made arrange nit nts for returning to the Cape." Mr. Graves sent for Bromley to bid them good-bye before their departure, and my fellowclerk returned wearing a magnificent diamond ring, a token of the husband's gratitude to Bromley for his aid in the discovery of the runaway wife.