MOLLY'S HUSBAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15349, 9 July 1913, Page 13

MOLLY'S HUSBAND.

PTTBLISIIED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEr UENT. •

BY RICHARD MARSH,

Author of " The Kosue's Progress." '* The Beetle." etc.

CHAPTER XX .—(Continued.)

Lap* Lucy sighed. She put her cup .nd saucer on a gilt-topped table, and drew her handkerchief across her lips; £ he realised that she was in a position in which evasions would not be allowed to pass. That she was trapped— she ' OU J4 not be released form the trap till f he had told these wretched, inquisitive, people all they wanted to know; so as she was a woman who never hesitated to face •'acts when ,<! realised that they had to be faced she let them have it all at once. You are all glaring at mo as if you •hough'- I had been guilty of a crime; Kpi if there's anyone who has been ■ k- of a crime, its Molly. Wnether £ girl's mad 1 can't say. Is it strange ■h\t I should wish to conceal the fact if l u« js' The whole affair has been a ,medv of errors—or a tragedy, or a / ~ , "or a melodrama— am beginning to Sid'cr which. Cm the day of tier mam--2 nor husband not only deserted her. the descried me. She stole out of the house while I was sitting alone making Las for her future; when 1 went to tell £ er what I had been thinking of, 1 found sjio was gone." " *» You never breathed a word about anythin" of the kind to us." This was Lady PeWsfield, who was sitting bolt upright un her chair, as if she felt mat, under the circumstances, a comfortable position was out of the question. . ' - What would have been gained it 1 }~£!' 1 have suffered enough already— what with the man Waller's conduct and jutraze i didn't want to blaze about the fact that I was suffering still more. Besides 1 supposed each moment that Molly would return to me; or. at least, that'she would let me know where she "What efforts did you make to ascertain where she was?" This was Mamaduke Prideaux, who had come to Aix that very morning. "I m."vde none." "Lucy:"' This came from all the women present in a sort of chorus. ••Whv should I? She left me oi tier own accord: she knew where I was to be found. She was a rich woman, I was poor; there was nothing she could desire which was not at her command. She knew that I was nearly penniless—l had told her so. I do not say that that is why she left me, but, at ieast, she had made it plain that whatever my necessities might be, not one penny should I ever have from her." ■'Had there been a quarrel between vou?" This again was Mr. Prideanx. * "No, there had been no quarrel—nothing approaching a quarrel. But 1 confess that I was not surprised to find that she had gone, although I did not know that she was going, nor had she dropped the slightest hint that she harboured any intention of the kind." "How long was it before you learnt where she had gone to?" "I cannot tell you to a day. One morning I had a letter from a person named Whiting—a Miss Whiting had been one of Molly's governesses; this Miss Whiting was that Miss Whiting. She wrote a brief, formal note, in which she said that Mollv had desired her to inform me that she had been staying in her house, and bad now accepted a post as nursery governess in the establishment of a lady with whom she—Miss Whiting— acquainted; but that while, at Molly's special request, she withheld her address, anv communication which I might send would be forwarded. The whole thing was a sheer impertinence. If the girl isn't stark mad, she must be something worse —that she, my daughter, should direct a person of Miss Whiting's class to .send itteh a letter to her own mother while taking care not to write to me herself— that 'she had instructed Miss Whiting to withhold from me her address. The insolence of it! That Miss Whiting would forward any communication which I might send to my own child . Could a girl behave worse to a mother than to instruct a third perron to send such a message as that? " Getting up from her chair, Lady Lucy took her cup and saucer off the gilt-topped table. ' " There's the whole stCTV for you as I know it; now throw all the things at me that you can lay your hands on as if I were to blame for my daughter's bad conduct. Perhaps I may be allowed to help myself to another cup of tea while you are considering what there is to throw. I hope you won't aim crooked when you do start throwing and hit each other"instead of me; you'll find it uncommonly easy. Now, Marmaduke, why are you looking at me like that ? What have you got to say?" "I am very-.sorry for Molly; that, is all I have to. say? " v " Thank you;' I suppose you are not at all sorry for me?" "Truthfully, I cannot say that I am very. I can understand your disappointment; but you are so much better able to take care of yourself than that child is. I don't care what the tale of her years is; she is much more of a child than most of the children I have met; as helpless as the most childish of them- God help her; that's what I have to say. I envy yon your courage; if I were her mother I|' shouldn't feel so brave."

. ''You see, the point isyou are not her mother, and therefore have only the vaguest idea of what you're talking about."

Mr. Prideaux was still looking at Lady Lacy as if he were about to retort, when Sir "Ponbertby Henshaw made his first remark.

"I am bound to say, Lucy v that to me the whole affair is most mysterious, Why has Molly—what possible reason can the have for taking a situation—any situation, when she has "five thousand a year in her own right, to say nothing of access and -tee - right to use "her husband's vast possessions? His eccentric conduct has not affected her rights in that respect one iota."

Lady L\ v made a' tittle gesture of acquiescence. '•Peaberthy, you have hit the mark, that, is exactly my point. She is one of the richest women" in England to-day, yet she insists upon behaving as if she were a pauper lunatic." ' "I take it that her position is that she declines to touch a. penny which comes from the man who is her husband only in name."

This wa.i Mr. I'rideaux. Lady Lucy snapped at him. '" Husband only in name! What do you mean by that':' How many men are husbands only in name? . And if you conic to ii. wives also '! Marriage settlements are marriage settlements; if they are to Lc rendered null and void by Che vagaries of husbands a nice plight we women shall he in." General Delanv spoke; he was warming himself by the tire; it was late September and the afternoon was cool. ''It seems to mo Uiat the question is. when does a husband become a husband '! Whatever may he the point of view of the church and the law in regarding Mr. Waller as a husbard, if I were in Molly's shoes I'm sine 1 shouldn't feel as if I ere his wife." "That's all very well." observed Lady Petersfield, "and" very fine as far as it goes; but Molly is in a peculiar position. She doesn't hit it off with her mother—" " I don't think you're entitled to say that, Sarah." This was Lady Lucy. "She doesn't all the same. You've never cared for her from the day she Was born. Rut Molly being in such a delicate position ought to have shown some glimmering of common sense. "hen she left those altar rails it ceased Jo be her mother's duty to keep her, it had become her -husband's—she ought to have remembered that. She might' have declined, if bent on being a Quixote, to spend the whole of her five thousand a year, or to touch any of her other be*Qogiugs which, of course, came from ami: but just as he would have been pound, had lie been present, .to keep her '» decent comfort, so he was when he was absent: if Molly had understood her ■ jj'aty rightly she would have seen that be did it. I cannot neip feeling that, by (

what I'm bound to call her pigheadedness, she has placed both her mother and herself in a very invidious position. She had no right, under anv circumstances, to tako up such a ridiculous position as that of a nursery governess. I had a series of nursery governesses for children as soon as they were able to walk alone; and I made it a rule never to pay one of them more than thirty pounds a year." "I think," observed Sir Penberthv, that you will find that some nursery governesses are paid even less than that."

Then it makes it still more absurd that Molly should demean herself by doing anything of the kind. You only nave to think of it. Surely no woman in her senses would accept her as nursery governess who was acquainted with the facts— person who, the moment she ceased behaving like a lunatic, was in the enjoyment of at least fifty or sixty thousand pounds a year. Absurd ; no one would have such a person in such a position. If Molly has such a situation, she must have got it by concealing the actual facts, by deception, misrepresentation, and that's a pretty state, of things. It looks to me as if she were one of those persons of whom Shakespere tells us, who strain at a gnat and swallow a camel."

"Was it Shakespere who said that?" It was Mr. Prideaux who asked the question.

" For my purpose it doesn't matter wllo said it, as lons as somebody did. 1 suppose Molly thinks siie is doing a very high-minded thing in refusing to touch her husband's money, but overlooks ,the fact that she is doing a very disgraceful thing in entering a stranger's house under false pretences!" "There's no evidence before us to show that she's done anything of the kind."

" Don't talk nonsense, Marmaduke. Would any sensible, respectable woman engage Molly for such a position if she wore acquainted with the facts of the case ? She wouldn't do it for the girl's own sake."

"1 think Sarah is not very far out. Docs anyone want any more tea?" This was Lady Henshaw. No one did. "Not one of you has eaten anything, and; there are all these hot cakes and things—at least, they were hot once. If I had such a person in the house 1 certainly shouldn't know how to treat her. You don't want to treat a nursery governess as if she were one of your family. What are you to do with her when you know that she is about ten times richer than yourself. I'm afraid that Molly, when applying for her situation, wasn't so frank as such a high-toned young woman ought to have been."

"The question is: What are we going to do now ? We can't allow her to continue to be a nursery governessthat's unthinkable. Lucy, have you that person's letter of whom you spoke'" "Oh, yes, I have it—not here, but I have it. It's at the hotel."

" I believe you said that the person's name was Whiting. Marmaduke. I think you ought to go and interview Miss Whiting." "It may seem odd, Mabel, but I was thinking so myself. In fact, I was meditating doing so as soon as thisconference is ended. I am only passing through Aix— season's ended, I'm due in town. As soon as I get there I'll look Miss Whiting up, if Lucy will give me her address."

" She lives at Shanklin, in the Isle of Wight, at a ridiculous place called the White Cottage. I had better show you her letter."

" I think perhaps you had. A little judicious pressure should make Miss Whiting apprehend that this erratic young lady's address should not be withheld — from those who are entitled to know it. If I once get within reach of the young lady I am hopeful that I may be able to bring her to a more reasonable frame of mind. There's someone knocking at the door."

There was —with rather sudden vigour. Lady Henshaw said: "I daresay it's the waiter, to know if we've done with the tea. Come in."

The waiter entered. He had an envelope on a tray. "Pardon, is Lady Lucy Mitford here?" Her ladyship signified that she was. " A telegram has come for her at her hotel; the concierge, knowing she was here, sent it on, lest it should be important, as it is a telegram from England." Lady Lucy took up the envelope which the man held out to her.

" I expect it's nothing of the slightest interest or importance either; telegrams seldom are."

The waiter, bowing, said : "The messenger is waiting to know if there is a reply." Lady Lucy opened the envelope, and with an air of indifference began to read the message, which, as is the "case with telegrams in France, was on the other Side. Scarcely had her eye caught the first word than her air of indifference vanished. She started from her chair, changed countenance, giving signs of the most unusual emotion. When she had read it she actually gave a little shriek. She seemed on a sudden to be Half beside herself.

"Sarah! Mabel! Marmaduke! It can't be true! It must be some wicked hoax ! What does it mean ?"

" Let me look at tin telegram, Lucy," Mr. Prideaux took it from her seemingly unconscious hand. She stood looking about her with vacant, frightened eyes, as if oblivious of her surroundings. As Mr. Prideaux glanced at the telegram an exclamation broke from him. But he retained his presence of mind—he glanced at the waiter. "You can go; tell the person who brought this telegram to wait."

The moment the waiter had gone, questions came from all the persons' in the room.

Lucy Marmaduke: What does the telegram say ? What is the matter ? What can have happened ?" Mr. Prideaux was a person who was certainly not easily moved; yet not one of those who looked at him could doubt that he was under the influence of some nearly overmastering emotion then. When he spoke something seemed to have happened to his voice, it was broken and harsh.

"I will read you what the telegram says; it's—it's not an easy one to read. ' Mrs. John Waller has been arrested for the murder of her husband. Wire instructions.—" Ar.Trrrß Rye.' That's —that's a brief telegram in which to convey such— such an item of information."

CHAPTER XXI. WHY HARRY DBUMMOND RETURNED TO TOWN". The reading of that telegram was follower! by something very like chaos. In varying degrees, each person in that hotel cittingrooni seemed to lose his or her head. Everyone wanted to .see the telegram, us, if it were impossible to credit its authenticity without seeing it, and having seen it, broke into more or less superfluous exclamations of wonder, incredulity, and horror. "I can only say," declared General Delany, " that*l read this morning's i?aris editions of the London and New York papers, from the first linn to the last, end there wasn't in either a mention of anyone having been murdered. When was the telegram sent? " ~,,,. Colonel Adams had the telegram at the moment; it was ho who answered. '•Let me see, these confounded foreign telegrams always do bother me; so far as I can make out, it doesn't give the office of despatch, but it was sent from London at 2 ~-u We are later than London, aren t

* No one enlightened his ignorance. Lady Petersfield broke into a string of remarks which bore no relation to anything he had "What I can't make out is. what Mr. Rve thinks he is doing by using ha.f a dozen bare words to communicate to us a fact of that kind. The man's a fool. How does iie suppo.se that we're to know what be means ? He's aware that we re in a foreign land, and that news takes a .time to reach us. Surely he must have sense enough to guess that we may know not , of what has happened to Mr. Waller, or to Mollv, or to anyone. Why on earth can't he be more communicative instead' ot trving to save his money?" •- It .'s always possible, I should say that 4t was probable, that the whole thing is a hoax."

This was Sir Penberthy, who had taken the telegram from the colonel, and was turning it over and over, as if he thought he might find on it something which would "dissolve the doubt he himself had raised. Mr. Prideaux spoke next —he was writing on the back of an old letter with a lead pencil.

" Of course, there's always that possibility; let's hope it is a hoax; we shall soon know. I'm wiring a query to Mr. Rye." He turned to Lady Lucy, who seemed to be less affected than astounded'-

"Lucy, I'm going to send this wire at once. 'To Arthur Rye, Great Marlborough 'Street, London.—Lady Lucy Mitford has just received telegram as follows: "Mrs. John Waller lias been arrested for the murler of her husband. Wire instructions. Arthur Rye." Wire at once if genuine, giving details. Do not understand; suspect a hoax. Reply at once, as if telegram received is genuine I shall leave Aix with Lady Lucy Mitford to-night for London.—Marmaduke Prideaux. Hotel Bernascon.' It's verbose, but I think it expresses what I wish to say; better send a word too many than one too few. Is there any alteration you would like to make, or anything you would like to add ? "

Lady Lucy shook her head. She did nut directly reply to his inquiry.

"It will be frightfully inconvenient for me to leave Aix-hvs-Bains to-night-"

"If you prefer it, I will go alone. Is that the only comment you have to make on the telegram I propose to send ? "

Mr. * Prideaux's tone was dry. Her ladyship seemed to be absorbed by rerleetions of her own.

"The telegram is all right. It's easy for you to talk of dashing to London at a moment's notice, but—for me it's not so easv.'' ,

She was thinking of her empty pockets; of the bill she owed at her hotel. She would certainly not be allowed to take away her luggage, till it was paid. What .she called her luggage comprised practically all her worldly possessions. Then there was Colonel Straker-Squire: he was a gentleman who liked things done in. order, at leisure. She was engaged to dine with him that night—the result of a little manoeuvre; she happened to know that the dinner had been ordered —she had practically ordered it herself. If she dashed off in the unceremonious fashion Mr. Prideaux's words suggested, and left the colonel to eat his dinnerwhich was her dinner—alone, he would not easily forgive her. She might abandon hope in his direction—it would be tantamount to giving up the siege- And that objectionable Mrs. Hardinge—he might ask that very dangerous woman to take Iter place at dinner. In the course of a tete-a-tete dinner with her, what might not happen ? Lady Lucy had meant that something should happen if she had been the other dinerthat creature who called herself Hardinge might bring that something about instead. If the wretch were to send her a card for the wedding—which might have been her own! Within, her ladyship writhed at the thought. Was this exasperating child of hers always to stand in the way ? ■

She could scarcely give these thought* of hers audible utterance, so * when she reiterated her reluctance to leave Aix-les-Bains at a moment's notice, she allowed her relatives to draw what conclusions they pleased. They might, if they liked, .set her down as still-further lacking in the maternal qualities, but if she could, she would postpone, her departure till the morning. She would not leave that old man, whose wealth made him a mark for every adventuress, at the mercy of that designing, dangerous woman; at least until she had dined with him herself. She pressed' the tips of her fingers into the palms of her hands. She was sure that before dinner was done she would bring him to a point at which he would think that she was the one thing in the whole, wide world that he desired. All the same, she did not want to have any bother over these kinsfolk of herswith their censorious eyes fixed on her. If only that telegram was a hoax! But the telegram was no hoax. Later Mr. Prideaux received an answer to his inquiry:—

"Telegram as quoted came from me. Regret that it is inadvisable to telegraph details. Essential that some person authorised to act on the lady's behalf should! come to London at once. Magisterial examination in the morning. Mrs. Waller in a state of collapse. Very advisable that friend .should see her at once.—AnTHUR Rye."

When that telegram was shown to Lady Lucy Mitford she felt that from every point of view she was in the most difficult position she had ever known in all her life. It seemed to her that she would have to choose between herself and her child. If Colonel Straker-Squiro was not brought to the sticking-point before he heard of Molly's plight, he probably never would be. What would be gained by 4 throwing away her only chance ? A day J or two would make no difference; after all, her presence in London could do no good to Molly. Probably Molly would not wish to see her. In any event, her gratitude would net be of so overwhelming a nature as to make up to her mother for what she had lost—probably for ever.

In her desperation she made a clean breast of matters to Marmaduke Prideaux —to a certain extent. He was not a very sympathetic listener—she had not expected he would be—yet she stayed behind at Aix-les-Bains and he went to London alone.

As it turned out, he found that he was not the first person who had rushed to Molly's aid.' Harry Drummond, journeying to an aunt in Devonshire, bought a paper at Bristol,, where the train stopped. A headline caught his eye : " Extraordinary Tragedy in a Taxi-cab. ' Wife arrested for the Murder of her Husband." He would have passed it over as one of the ordinary newspaper honors had he not noticed about ' half-way down the column a name—John Waller. He paused and glanced at it again—the name was certainly John Waller. John Waller ?. What John Waller? He began to read, with something approaching interestlnterest which rapidly became awful fascination.

It was a lurid talc as set forth by the newspaper scribe. A taxi-cab. containing a lady and gentleman, going from Pinner to London, was passing, somewhere about eight o'clock in the evening, along one of the country roads which still exist in that direction, when something attracted the driver's attention and caused him to glance behind him. He stopped the engine on the instant, gave a great shout, -jumped off the driver's seat and rushed to the body of his cab. In that brief glance behind him, lie had seen lite female passenger in the very act of driving what seemed to him to be a great knife into the breast of the man beside her. .So swift, so sure, had been her action, that by the time lie reached the door of the cab it was already too late. The man was dead, the woman had fallen back on her seat, still with the knife in her hand, apparently in some sort, of fit. A tradesman's cart was coming towards them along the road. He. hailed it. The man who was in it, a grocer's assistant, got down and came to his aid. Nothing could be done. They came to the conclusion the man was quite dead, while the woman was still unconscious. The driver got back on to his seat; he drove his gruesome burden to the nearest police station, (he man in the grocer's cart keeping beside him.

When he got there a doctor was hastily summoned to the scene, and pronounced that the man was quite dead, while the woman remained insensible. She continued in that condition for a period extending over several hours. When she did come back to sense again she was in such .-I state of physical collapse as to he, hovering, according to the doctor, between life and death. When the clothes of tin; two persons were examined, papers were found on the man which eeemed to point to the fact that his name was John Waller, while on the woman a telegram was discovered address.:,! to Mrs. Waller, whose purport the police had declined to reveal, a? they regarded it as a very important piece of evidence. The driver declared that lie had distinctly heard the man address the woman as his Wife. (To be continued on Saturday next.)