BETRAYAL OF JOHN FORDHAM

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10064, 26 February 1896, Page 3

BETRAYAL OF JOHN FORDHAM

NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.

BY B. L. FARJEON, Author of "No. 119, Great Porter Square," " Qrif," "The March of Fate," "For the Defence," "Aaron the Jew," etc. [All Eights Reserved.) CHAPTER XL—r Continued.) But though we searched for fully half an hour, we saw nothing of them, and when we got back to the hotel they wore still absent. ■ Meanwhile the coucierge had been making inquiries, and gavo us the information that two ladies had been seen proceeding to the lower end of tho town, towards tho railway station where the local train started for Fernoy. The man who had given this information was in attendance, in expectation of a gratuity. Him we questioned, and tho description he gave of the ladies Batisflod us that we wero on tho track. Thoy were English ladies, and wore laughing and talking with animation; thoy were in high spirits, and seemed porfectly happy. Ho supposed that they wore going to thoir hotel. Would he show us the road they took f Willingly, willingly. I gave him monoy, and he preceded us, and pointed out the spot whero ho had left them. Did wo require anything more? No. Ho wished us good-night, and we stood looking helplessly at each other. Presently I said to Mr. Ramsay :

" If you will give me an explanation of certain words you spoke it may assist to a solution of this strange disappearance. What did you moan by saying that I did not know what it was to bo weak and to be tempted ; and why, when you missed your wife, did you go to mine to find lior!" . He did not answer mo immediately; his hands were pressed upon his eyos, as though he were endeavouring to collect his thoughts, and when ho removed them I Baw tears rolling down his cheeks. " I will tell you all," hd said, spoaking slowly, and in a hollow voice, " but it must be in confidence. A man does not want his liame proclaimed to the whole world." "No, indeod," 1 said. " What passes between us is in confidence. We are English gentlemen." " We travelled from Paris in the same train, and unhappily in tho same carriage. If I could havo got seats elsewhere I would have taken them, but ovory carriage was full." "Why? Are you acquainted with my wife, and have you any feeling against hor? To mo you are a perfect stranger ; I do not remember ever having seen you or your wife before. "Wo are strangers to one another, he replied, "and havo never met till to-day— a fatal day to me, I fear. I will speak plainly ; you will nob mind r" " Speak plainly ; I shall not be offended." " It seemed to me," he proceeded, " that you were taking some notice of us, and I daresay you observed that I brought food to my wife, and that she could not eat it?" " Yes, I observed it, and I was sorry for her." , " No, she could not eat it," he interrupted himself suddenly. "Good God! What will be the ond of it? After all these years —after all the agony I have endured 1" He stopped, overcome with emotion. '' If you do not compote yourself,"l said, "you will be simply frustrating the object we hare in view." " Compose myself !" he repeated, bitterly. '• It is easy for you to speak in that way. It is easy for you, whose domestic happiness, whoso brightest hopes, whoso life, have not been wrecked, to preach of calmness, but to ask me, a despairing, brokenhearted man, to practise it, is a mockery." I might have enlightened him upon this point, but I held my peace. I had no desire to pour into the ear of a stranger confidences which I should havo withheld from my nearest friend. I was anxiouß to hear what he bad to say becauso of the trouble which had fallen upon myself, because we were both engaged on the same quest, and becauso of his mysterious allusions to Barbara. Therefore I encouraged him to proceed. I may state hero that during our long conversation that nigh ll we wore nob inactive. While we were engaged lit it wo were prosecuting our search. We made inquiries at cottages we passed on the road, and learned that wo were following tho footsteps of our wives. Sometimes we were directed aright, sometimes we wero misdirected and had to rotraco our steps. We learned that two ladies had stopped here and there, and had inquired if they could be accommodated for the night, and it was not until two in the morning that we tracked thorn down. In the meantime what I wished to hear concorning Barbara, and the sad story of a shattered borne, wero imparted to me. "Your wife," said Mr. Ramsay, "had brandy with her, and twice, when you were absent from the carriage, she asked my wile to partake of it. If I had not been by her side she would havo accepted it, but she was under a solemn pledge to ma, and she declined. It was that that made mo fear, that caused mo to wish with all my heart and soul that'we wore not in tho same carriage as yourselves. It was kindly meant" no doubt, and your wifo had no suspicion of the mischief sho was doing by throwing the terrible temptation in my wife's way. It would bo better for the world if all tho strong drink in it were thrown into the sea. Thousands and thousands of men and women have been ruined by it, are boing ruined by it this very day, irretrievably, fatally ruined. My curso upon those who thrive and fatten upon the misery ! Ho was silent, and I did not break the silence, boing mentally engaged upon my own trouble and grief. Not once during the long journey from Parts to Geneva had Barbara in my presence drank from the bottle of brandy she had in her bag. In treacherous secrecy she indulged, aided by her confidant, Annette. I was not surprised to hear it, but it was nevertheless a shock to mo. With a morbid yearning I waited for what Mr. Ramsay had yob to unfold.

"In what way," he paid, breaking off continually in hie narrative, and taking up the threads with tho air of one who found relief in unburdoning of his sorrows, " my wife contracted the fatal habit I do not know. Before I married her there were no signs of it, or maybe it would bo more correct for me to say there were no signs apparent to mo. Neither during the first two or three years of our married life was there anything manifest to cause me alarm. Then came the shock of discovery. One day, when I had been away upon business since early morning, and had not returned home till nearly midnight, I found her drunk. It almost maddened mo, but she was in no stato to understand ray expostulations. I waited till she was sober 1 before I spoke to her, and thon I spoke bitterly and plainly. She was very, very sorry—genuinely sorry, and I pitied her. She promised amendment, and said she did not recollect how it had happoned. On her knees she begged me to forgive her, and I did so freoly and with pity in my heart, and for a little while afterwards we were happy again. The shadow had departed from our home, never, 1 believed, to darken our lives again. I was mistaken. It happened tho second time, and her sorrow and repentance again found expression, and her vows of reformation repeated. I must tell you. It is not that alio was fond of the cursed stuff, but when it was offered to her she could not resist. It is a disease, an infatuation, and unfortunately eho had a woman friend who tippled, unknown to her family, and who, during my absences from homo, carao to my house and drank. I did not discover this till too late, and when I did I showed her the door, and threatened to expose hor if she ever darkened my threshold again. Sho laughed, and called me a fool, and asked me if 1 thought my wife better than other I women. I could not tell her, but are all women the same? My own sorrows, however, were more than a handful, and I had to fight them. Again I remonstrated with my wife, and painted in strong colours the inevitable result of this fatal indulgence. Again upon her knees she vowed amendment and bosoughb forgiveness—and again she broke her vows and brought fresh misery upon us. Lob me nob do her an injustice. She does not lie, she does not scheme, her repentance is sincere. Persons uuacquainted with her would call her a hypocrite; she is nob one, she is not clever enough nor cunning enough: she is simply weak, she has not the strength to put aside temptation, I lb has happened that, white wo were walk'

' ing, and aho had nob drank for several days, we have passed a brewery, and she had grown fainb and sick with longing. I have had to hurry her on, bub it was, some time before she recovered. If I had nob been with her on those occasions and liquor had beon offered to her she would have accepted it. I neglected my business affairs to watch her, to be with her to divert her mind from the craving which needed bub the smallest encouragement to make its terrible mark. I have never lost my love for her ; I lovo her still, despite the misery she has brought upon us. Once she was bright and beautiful, too, the sweatest face I have evor beheld ; her life was happy, and shed happiness upon all around her. See what sho is now, worn and haggard, older in looks by twenty years than she is in reality ; remorse has oaten into her soul. I have battled, I have suffered, I have endured for years. We have two children, girls, the eldest just burned four, and the torturing thought has presented itself that they may have inherited their mother's disease. It tortures her, also. Even if that taint is not in their blood, into what kind of womanhood will they grow with such an example before them ? I consulted the highest authorities. ' There is but one chance,' they said. ' Put her into a retreat for inebriate!); let lior remain there a year at least ; she may come out curod.' 'Have such cures been effected ?' I asked. 'Is the cure permanent ! 'In ?omo cases yes,' was the answer. ' Instead of craving for drink they havo had a lifelong horror of it.' Hore was hope; sho would come out nob only cured, bub chastened. Happiness would be restored to her and to those around her. To be separated from her for so long a time would be a sharp grief, bub it was the lesser evil of the two. She could nob, however, be pub into such a retreat without hor written consent ; thoro is, unhappily, no law by which a euro could be forced upon her. I spoke to her about ib, and at first she shrank from the trial; the idea of being torn from me, from her children, whom alio loves devotedly, drove her to distraction. Bub 1 argued with her, I sab before her the abyss which she was surely approaching, I described the future to her in words so true and vivid, that at length sho gave in. I ascertained that there is a retreat of this kind in the neighbourhood of this-ctty, and to this retreat she has consented to be banished for twelve month?. A lawyer drew up a paper in which she surrendered hor liberty; sho signed ib, and ibis now in my podiot. All the arrangements for hor admission have been made, and we travelled bo Geneva for the purpose of taking the final step towards thin better future. To-morrow wo are to go to the retreat, and bid each other are well for a year. You can now understand ray terror when I saw your wife drinking brandy in tho railway carriage, and when sho offered the bottle to the poor lady in whom all my hopes are centred; you can now understand what I meant when I saiid that life and death hang upon my finding her to-night." Too well did I understand it, too well did I understand the lesson convoyed in his sad story, which he Delated to me with sobs and bursts of passion. Bub I imparted to him no kindred confidence, nor did J give any indication that I, as well as ho, was married to a dipsomaniac. Neither did he ask me any questions about Barbara. Oriof is selfish, and leaves little room for sympathy. (To bo continued on Saturday next.)