BETRAYAL OF JOHN FORDHAM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10076, 11 March 1896, Page 3

BETRAYAL OF JOHN FORDHAM.

BY B. L. FARJKON, Author of" No. 119, Great Porter Square," " Grif," "The March of Fate," " For the Defence,"" Aaron the Jew," etc. [All Rights Reserved.] CHAPTER XIV. If I have dwelb at greater length than I intended upon the incidents which made their fatal mark upon the early months of my married life ib is because I wish Barbara's character to be clearly understood, and because they supply a pregnant index to what followed. Th« firsbnighbl spent in our new homo was a prelude to innumerable nights of the same nature. Safe from observation and free to indulge in her besotted habits, with a willing tool at her beck and call in the person of Annette, with a helpless protector chained to her by bonds which he could not break, she found herself absolute mistress of a drunkard's hellish heaven. She revelled in it, and gave her passions free play. Day after , day, night after night, I had by my side a creature who had reached the lowest depths of bestial degradation, and whose one aim in life seoined to be to reach a lower still. She was a large framed woman with a magnificent constitution, or she would soon have sucoumbed and become a drivelling idiot. Throughout all, singular to say, she preserved her cunning, and the expedients by which she hedged herself in and kept her besetting vice from the knowledge of others except myself and Annette, were nothing short of marvellous in their ingenuity. Tho room she called her prayerroom was her sanctuary, and it was there, attended by Annette, that she freely indulged. She acquired, indeed,a reputation for sanctity, and even our servants were deceived by her clever devices. Annette became housekeeper and the nominal mistress of the establishment, and from her they received their orders. They saw their real mistress only when she was sober, and then she spoke kindly and was liberal to them. When she seculded herself they were given to understand that she was ill or at her devotions, She was supposed to suffer from a mysterious disorder, and her drivelling screams in the middle of tho nights were attributed to pain. I subsequently learned that they were often attributed to ray beating her and knocking her about.

I recall the day when she sac at the table with a livid bruiso on her cheek, caused by her falling against the sharp corner of a pieco of furniture. The parlourmaid assisted Annofcto to apply hoc fomentations to the bruise, and when, later in the day, I noticed the frightened, horrified looks tho girl cast at me, I knew that* she had beon told the lie that I had struck my wife. Againtfc these calumnies I had no defence. In the kitchen I was regarded as a monster of cruelty, and the servants shrank aside as I pasted them. Before the domtstics Barbara invariably addressed me in frightened, humble tones. She Kopt her revilings for my private ear, the only witness of the scenes between us being Annette.

The character foisted upon me was nob confined to the house. Our servants rejated shameful stories against me bo their friends in the neighbourhood, who, in their turn, poured these stories into their mistresses' ears, Wives and mothers looked darkly at mo, and those with whom I had become acquainted did not return my bow. I was completely and effectually ostracised. Under those precautions was it any wonder that I felt myself becoming hardened? My nature was changed. I crew habitually morose and savage, and by my manner defioil my traducers. This made matters worse for me, and gave colour to the stories of systematic cruelty laid to my charge. After awhile I slept in the spare room alone and offered up prayers of thankfulness that wo hid no children. It was indeed a bless ing for which I could not bo sufficiently grateful. One evening when we were at dinnor, and Barbara was toying with ber food and sigh ing in the presence of the maid who waited at table, I suggested that she should call in a doctor. " It is nob a doctor I require." she said, gazing at me with mournful significance. " Oh, John, if only you—" And then she checked herself, as if she would not say anything to my discredit before tho servant. "Finish the sentonoo," I said. "If I only what?" " Do not force mo to spoak," sho cried, in an imploring tone. Bursting into tears she rose from the table and left the room. What clearer evidence of my barbarity could bo supplied ? Tho maid would have been bcrsfb of sense not to have understood the implication, and there is no doubt that sho took tho tale down to her fellow-nervants in the kitchen. Before them, at meals, she never drank, but it was a common practico with hor when we and Annette were together at dinner, to help herself to copious draughts of brandy. 1 no longer remonstrated with her; she would have added to my distress by drinking deeper. In all these tricks she was assisted by Maxwell and my stepmother. Louis, for the most part, was a passive spectator. Maxwell drank with her and laughed. My stopmother said: " See what you are driving her to. You are breaking her heart. I always knew what would happen if you married." You are saying what is false, became you hate me," I replied. " I am speaking the truth," she retorted, "and truly I have no cause to love you. It is my opinion you have some wicked scheme in viow. Bub there will be a judgment upon you for all your cleverness. You robbed me you robbed Louis of his patrimony. What good is the money doing you ?" It is well 1 had matters apart from my domestic affairs to occupy me, or my mind would have losb its balance entirely. In accordance with tho plan Barbara had laid down for mo, I took a small set of chambers in one of the streets lending from the Strand to the river—tho locality she had herself proposed—consisting of three rooms, a sitting-room, bedroom, and bathroom; and there I pursued my literary labours. The chambers were ab the top of the house, and the sitting-room looked out upon the river. How happy could I havo been there, had it nob been for tho living weight which held me down I Gladly every morning did I leave my home, sadly every evening did I return to it. At first I wrote a few short stories, whioh I sent to tho magazines. They were refused. Every fresh rejection brought disappointment with it, but disheartenod me only a short time. When my manuscripts came back to me I read them carefully, found faults in them, re-wrote them, and tried again, with the same result. Thus a year passed, and I had not advanced a step. Two or three times in the course of this year Barbara visited me. " You are happy here," she said, and I did not gainsay her. " You liko it bettor than your own home." " lb was your own proposition," I replied. " Will nothing satisfy you ?" " lb was nob my proposition," she said* You chose this yourself, and you have assignations here with creatures you love better than mo. Oh, I know why you spend the day in these rooms. Do you think I am blind to the life you are iving." • She, carried hor venom to the length of tearing up manuscripts upon which I was engaged ; I submitted to this awhile, bub eventually I protected myself by locking up my papers when I heard her knock at the door. She was furious at my refusal to give her duplicate keys to the chambers. "A clear proof,'* she cried. On one of those occasions I proposed a separation, and offered to settle upon her half the money I possessed go long as we remained apart. " Will you give ib to me in a lump!" she asked "No," I answered, "there must be a guarantee that you will not violate the conditions of the deed, which would be drawn up and signed by both of us. You shall have th« interest of the money. If I die before you ib will all be yoari without restriction. ' " Thank you, my dear," she said. "I :prefor' !i things as they are. You will nob get rid of me 'soeauly. You would divorce me if it were in your power. Of course you ! won't answer that. But you will never gob

the chance, love. I am acquainted with the grounds upon which a divorce can be obtained. You shall hare no reason to say that I am nob a true and faithful wife to you." And, indeed, upon the score of faithfulnem—in its legal sense—l entertained no doubts. She had but one brandy. While I was endeavouring to obtain a footing in the literary field by means of short stories, I was preparing a series of articles upon the curse of the landdrawing upon actual facts and real life for my pen and ink pictures. By good fortune I obtained an introduction to the editor of a paper, the columns of which were open to social subjects, and I submitted a few of these articles to him. He approved of them, and suggesting certain alterations, which I agreed to make, consented to use them. His paper was one which did not admit of signed contributions, and had it been otherwise I should nob have put my name to them, my domestic troubles on the same theme being a bar to sueh a course. The editor did nok inquire into the source from which I obtained the facte for my descriptions of the effects of the awful vice; he was content with my method of treatment and with my literary style. "Jnst one word of advice," he said, "don'bshrink from speaking broadly and plainly. It is a burning question, and you can't put it too strongly. lam not so well up in the subject as yourself, but I should say, even if a man drew entirely upon his imagination, he could nob paint more striking pictures than reality can supply. The successful artist) paints from life and nature."

" What I describe," I replied, " is what I have seen. Nothing more horrible can be met in the Vision of Hell. The city of shame and sin is full of little hells, and if there is any truth in pulpit sermons and religious ministrations, in every little hell souls are daily being damned." He threw a searching glance upon me. " I like that. Don't forget the metaphor; use it in one of the early articles. Some writers keep their big plums till the last; it is a mistake. Fairy tales can be written on a Swiss mountain or an Italian lake, but to do justice to such a subject as yours you must dig into Babylon's crust; you need the pest-houses of civilisation, the hog-like natures of mon and women familiar with crime and poverty." The evil is nob confined to hovels," I remarked, "nor to the criminal classes. Mansions of the well-to-do supply fruitful material." " Well, do your best," he said. "We shall create a sensation." We did. My articles were quoted far and near. Writing under a burning sense of wrong I was nob sparing of epithet and denunciation. I worked at fever heat, and was often appalled at what I wrote, bub it went into print with scarcely the alteration of a word. Had I written under my own name I might have become a celebrity. (To be continued on Siturd&v next.