Charlie and Cherry.

Observer, Volume XI, Issue 780, 16 December 1893, Page 2

Charlie and Cherry.

There was a great change in his demeanour. He hardly spoke to her ; he wore a ring upon his taper finger bearing the name ' Cherry,' and when the wife ventured to suggest that she would like to go home he flatly told her he would not live with her again for all the gold in the Indies, that she no longer suited him and that he loved another. He confessed that he had been consorting with other women, and he said, doubtless with tears in his eyes, that it was a shame that a handsome man like him should be tied to a poor middle-aged creature like her. .

The wife, despite all these confessions, found voice to ask him if it was true that a Rirl named Nellie , of whom she bad heard while in the asylum, had borne him a child, and he evaded the question by saying he had made a fool of himself. This girl was then living in Sydney, and to Sydney Charlie was bound after his brief visit to Melbourne. Of course, that was but a mere coincidence. In May last Mrs Long returned home and was coldly received by her versatile spouse. For the subsequent five months the no longer happy pair inhabited the same house, occupying separate rooms, but virtually estranged in spirit.

According to Mrs Long's statement to the Court, Charlie took but little notice of her, and never came home until five o'clock in the morning. He offered her £2 a week if she would but go and live at Nelson, Picton, or Bomewhere else where he would never see her again ; he did not care where it was so long as it was out of his sight. To this gorgeous offer, she said she did- not see why she should leave her home, as she had done nothing wrong, and for the sake of her children she would stay on. Charlie's -heart did not relent, and the wife's spirit must have been rather tried if her story is to be believed. In his room, she Bays/ be displayed near his bed a velvet handkerchief satchel with the letters • Charlie from Cherry ' worked upon it. He wore a silk handkerchief similarly embroidered, and he treasured a fancy picture book inscribed: 'From Cherry to Charlie with lave.' He admitted having been charged with the paternity of the child of another woman (not Nellie this time) and he casually mentioned that he had paid her expenses to England. He had a weakness for decorating his room with portraits of half-nude girls, and he bragged to his wife of the girls whom he had ' fooled.'

Still the wife strove to make home comfortable to him, and to win back his affections. But she says : ' Whenever I spoke nicely to him he would say " Oh, I don't want that sort of rubbish ; I doj't care for it." If I was working a cushion he would snatch it away and say that was the sort of thing one saw in a wayside pub. If I sang, he would say my voice irritated him and he would shut down the piano.' All this had tended to make the poor woman unhappy, had rendered her nervous, and had injured her health. Other evidence was given, but why pursue a tedious tale ? To cut a long story short Mrs Long has got her decree nisi, and when it is made absolute three monthß hence Charlie will be free to place his fickle affections in some other quarter. Thus wags the world.