CHAPTER LXXII.

Taranaki Herald, Volume L, Issue 11963, 10 May 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

CHAPTER LXXII.

About noon, the day after the Medford ball, a trim, pretty young woman, dressed in a, brown serge, with plentiful pink ribbons, went up one of the dingiest stairways of Gray's Inn, to a legal den at the very top of the building. Being bidden to enter, she saw a boy valiantly and noisily writing with a quill at a desk by a window, and a email, keen, grey m*n, with one pair of spectacles on his nose and one on the top of his head, reading in tho great ing a light footfall, brought the upper glaHsea down over the fir 3% studied hia visitor for a minute, and said, cordially:

'Why, this 19 Fanny Huice I Fresh as ever, and prettier than ever. Eh, Fanny 1 How is your family '' 'Very well, thank you, Mr Crane.' 'And the brother I got the damages for when he was hurt ?' v ' He is doing very well, sir.'

'You were a good sifter to him. I remember you for it. Yoa pledged all your savings to get him counsel, and you have paid it too, willingly.'

•That was only right, sir.'

' All people do not do right though. Funny. Now, my girl, what do yon want to-day ? More dnronges ?'

'Only a few questions, Mr Crane. To know the law — the rights of very important matters.'

•Very good. Put your questions. I'll make the law plain to you.'

Fanny drew nrar to tbe old lawyer's chair. She looked fixedly at her toes and nervously rolled one of her pink ribbons with her fingers. *It is about marriage laws, sir.' 'Ob, oh, want some settlements, eh ?' laughed tbe old gentleman.

'If you'd please not joko me, Mr Crane, this is very important to me — and more. We'll fancy, if you please, sir, that a young man arrd a young wotDan^married, so hasty and foolish as never wa?, and that they never lived together, no, not a day, nor an hoar, Mr Crane.'

Mr Crane shook his head in grave disapproval of such proceeiings. Fanny went on :

'And yon'll please to consider that, not living together, tbe young man heard that tbe girl he married was dead and buried, and tombstone set up, say of a fever. And then, Mr Crane, we'll say he goes to sea, and is wrecked, and is given out drowned ; but is saved, say by cannibals, or some sac*. 'You mak« a novel, really. Fanny.*

( Ob, please, sir, it's trne every word, nearly. And wp will fancy, sir, that parsing for dead over two year*, he drift 3 back to Englimi strain. And as he believes, and is sure, the one he married is dead, he see* one whom he loves with all his heart, and mind, and soul, as it is in the prayer-book, so true as never was ; and the? get married.'

•Married, Fanny ! Let us see. Was this one he married before dead, really, or not ?' , 'No, she was not dead. It was a mistake.' •Then ho cannot marry any one else.' 'But, sir, wng she — never loved nor lived with — truly his wife ?'

'Oh, yes, indeed, F«nny, in the eye of God and tbe law. And this young man's business is to got bis lawful wife and live with her, and think no more of any one else. Thers's Jaw and gospel for that, nay g*ri.'

'But suppose ho manies tbe other — the one he loves ?'

'He can't. Going through the form wll not make a legal . marriage. He is guilty of bigamy.'

'If you please, what is bigamy ?' 'A crime he will go to prison for.' 'Oh, sir, suppose he does not know 1 He thinks he is free 1'

'Thinking does not make it so. Wherever the real wife finds him she can claim him. 1

'And tbi3 other one, what is her case, sir.'

'I can hardly imagine a worse one for a good woman to be in. She is not a wife at all.'

'And suppose she has children, Mr Crane ?'

'Oh, worse and worso J They will not be legitimate ; ihey will have no name, and cannot inherit.'

'And soppoao, sir. that none of these three people, the young man or tbe two voutsg women, knew the rights of the case, and there was one person that did, and stood by and said nothing ?' ' •That would be a troly fiendish, diabolical act, Fanny, wrecking three lives 1 Such a person can have no excase for not speaking and preventing-wrong-doing and endless consequences of eul !'

Fanny began to tremble very mnch. Her rosy face grew pale, great tears rolled down her cheeks, she twisted her pink ribbons with nervous n*agers. The old lawyer regarded her with interest and sympathy.

'Is this your case ? Are yon one of these very unfortunate young women, • Fanny?'

•'Indeed I am not,' responded Fanny, with considerable spirit. 'If there's one thing in tht3 world which makes me truly out of patience, sick and disgusted, after all the worry I've gone through, it is the idea of getting married ! No, Mr Crane, I'm not thinking of it.*

'I cannot understand with .what object you have put to me a case evidently clearly stated to yonr own mind, and in which yon ate obviously interoffice chair. The old gentleman, hearested. Bat what 1 hare told you is good law,, and nothing can alter it. When a man ' takes a» woman for his wife, by legal ceremony, only death or divorce can part them, and divorce will be granted only if she is evidently false to her marriage vows. If that cannot be proved, he has to keep her for hotter or worse, and nothing can make bis union with a secood Woman lawful, in the life of the first. And the case of the second woman would be iLfiimely deplorable.'

(To be continued.)