LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 712, 30 September 1876, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE MAJOR’S WIFE. Chapter I, Major Mellish is sitting in his bachelor lodgings in Duke street in no enviable state of mind. After ten years’ hard and perilous service in India, during which he had almost miraculously passed safely through some of the most dangerous work of the great mutiny of 1856, he has obtained a twelve months’ leave of absence on urgent private afiairs, and is now waiting the arrival of a detective, whom he has employed to discover the whereabouts of one who was, and who is even still very dear to him. When his regiment lay at country quarters shortly before its hurried departure from England for India, the Major, then only a Lieutenant, had fallen deeply in love with a charming girl, who, though beneath him in the social scale, was, in every other respect, worthy of becoming any honest man’s wife ; for, although now reduced to the sad necessity of occupying a situation behind the counter of a Manchester mercer, Ellen Willmore had been well brought up and well educated. The death of the only surviving parent had left her with a limited income, and the intemperance, extravagance and gambling propensities of an elder brother soon afterward stripped her of every farthing of it. Their father had bequeathed to them an equal share in the little property of which he had died possessed; but unluckily the will was so loosely worded that no legal restriction prevented Ellen from parting with the half of her two thousand pounds of which it consisted; and after the reckless spendthrift had wasted his own moiety, his sister had not sufficient strength of mind to refuse his mingled menaces and entreaties, but advanced him hundreds after hundreds, fifties after fifties, and tens after tens, until, by degrees, all save a few pounds, had banished, and she found herself comparatively penniless. Ruin stared poor Ellen in the face, and no other course seemed open to her but to take a subordinate position in the establishment of which her father had, until his retirement from trade, been the sole and respected proprietor. It was in this position that she was first seen by Lieutenant Mellish, when he one day happened to go into the shop to purchase a box of gloves and Ellen chanced to serve him. Very much struck with her beauty and really refined good manners, he several times repeated his visit, and bought neckties and collars, and other bachelor matters, enough to stock a whole regiment of officers.

This by degrees led to an intimacy which, not very long afterward resulted in a declaration of love, with an offer of his hand, and the young lieutenant’s suit having, after some maidenly hesitation, been favorably received, the affair culminated in a private marriage. He could not, he truly said, inform his family of their attachment, or dare to lead her publicly to the altar ; inasmuch as he was at present almost wholly dependent on his father, a wealthy old Baronet of ancient

lineage and indomitable pride of birth ; but meanwhile she should become his wife, and they would trust to time and circumstances to smooth over all difficulties, and gain the paternal consent to their union. Evpry mfln.ns wore taken, s'" l taken m/>. cessfully, to keep the matter a profound secret. Ellen, of course, left her situation, and retired to a small secluded cottage a few miles off, where her husband was able to visit her two or three times a week; and their wedded life was supremely happy until his regiment was suddenly ordered abroad to take part in the Chinese war, and on its passage thither was detained at Singapore, and despatched to Calcutta to assist in quelling the Sepoy outbreak. She could not, of course, accompany him, for that would have involved a discloclosure of their secret marriage ; but, before he embarked, the Lieutenant made every needful arrangement for his wife’s comfortable subsistence by placing £2OO a year to her credit, at Cox and Greenwood’s, his military agents, payable to her order every three months ; at the same time taking and furnishing a small house for her, in the immediate neighborhood of London, to wtich she removed only a few days before he started with his regiment for Southampton, From mingled feelings of pride ant of shame she had never mentioned to him the disgraceful conduct of that elder brother by whom she had been so recklessly deprived of well nigh the whole of the thousand pomds bequeathed to her by her father. She mvor even told him that she had a brother livug ; for as, after obtaining well-nigh her lasiteu pounds, the reprobate had suddenly disappeared from the neighborhood, and had not been heard of since, she shrank rom making him acquainted with the fact tht so degrading a relationship existed. After much perplexing considerationvith regard to procuring some thoroughly re'able person, who would be at once a sob of humble companion and servant to his darly loved Ellen, the Lieutenant finally (itermined to make one person in the regimut a confident of their union; and that ■as a staid, sober, honest old sergeant, whoswife as she was not going abroad with aem, would, he thought, gladly accept thcoffer of a good home and liberal wages iring the absence of the regiment in feign service.

And so it was arranged; and a£ r an affectionate leave-taking between tt married lovers —for though married, th< were lovers still—Lieutenant Mellish sail* with his regiment from Southampton, on bat he and every one else thought would ban expedition of only a few months; b from which he did not return until after f lapse of ten long years, only three days revious to the opening of this story. He left England, a slim, fa’haired, boyish-looking lieutenant; but car back a stout, bushy-bearded grim-lookir Major. So much for good health and the of war. He is in deep mourning, too ; ,r > on his arrival in England, he found tha"he proud old Baronet, his father, had di< suddenly only three weeks before he had rded. This has given him a grand step uj ,i n hfe, inasmuch as he was an only 30i i s now > therefore, Sir Herbert Mellish./ The entailed estates alone a' v °rth more than six thousand a year, •Me a amount of personal property he would gladly give up the whole of r P rm cely income, and fall back on hiM a J P a y> could he bat restore the hap/home he lett when he went on foreign ser e -

As it is—his wife, his dearly loved Ellen, whom he left in England, has mysteriously disappeared in his absence, and all the search which he has caused to be made has yet failed to discover the slightest clue to the cause of her disappearance, some nine months ago, or the smallest trace of her pi esent whereabouts. It was in this frame of mind _ that the Major sat smoking a veritable Trichinoply cheroot, and impatiently waiting for the advent of the astute detective for whose services he had applied at Scotland Yard on the very afternoon of his arrival in London, and immediately set to work to ascertain whatever was possible with regard to the strange and unaccountable flight of the darling wife from whom he had been so long separated. Chapter 11. A soft, but still distinct and decided sort of single-double knock, though it is neither exactly single or double, is heard at the street door. It is a kind of peculiar percussion, which none but a well practiced, hybrid gentleman postman could ever hope to imitate, and none but a first-class detec tive could produce ; and, two minutes afterward, Mr Jonas Holden, of Scotland Yard, is ushered into the apartment. ‘ Well,’ said the Major, ‘ any further news ? Take a glass of wine and a biscuit. You’ll find port, claret and sherry on that sideboard. Now, sit down, I see you have heard something.’ ‘ I have, Sir Herbert,’ said the detective, sitting down and sipping his sherry with infinite gusto, as if he didn’t come across such a vintage every day; * I have heard something that I think will surprise you a little.’ * Good news or bad ?’ £ Of that you’ll be the best judge, Major.’ ‘ Proceed.’

‘ In the first place I have traced the sergeant’s wife who was so long in your good lady’s service.’ ‘ Indeed! that is a great point gained ! Well?’ ‘ She is living in the first floor of a small house in Bolwell Terrace Lambeth Walk. * Go on.’ ‘ And she seems as far as I can judge, an honest woman, who is quite ready to give us every information in her power,’ ‘ Good! Well?’ * She was, and is, evidently greatly attached to your wife.’ ‘Ah, my poor darling Ellen ! Everybody who came near her loved her!’ exclaimed the Major, in a burst of uncontrollable agitation. ‘But I won’t interrupt you. Proceed.’ ‘ She spoke in the highest possible terms of her lady’s exemplary conduct in every respect,’ ‘ No doubt,’ ‘ Until about twelve months ago.’ ‘ Twelve months ago ? What does she mean by that? Did any alteration occur then ? ’ ‘ Yes.’ * Does she know the cause of that alteration ? ’ ‘ She does not know,’ replied the detective, very slowly and markedly ; ‘ but she seems to have formed an opinion about it.’ ‘ What is her opinion 7 What does she think was the cause ? ’ demanded the Major, forcibly struck with Mr Holden’s altered and peculiar mode of replying to the last question. ‘ Some quarrel ? some neglect of duty on the woman’s part ? ’ ‘ No, Major, but—- * opeait oui; man, speaK our,* ‘ You must pardon me, Sir Herbert; it is my duty to speak plainly 1 ’ said the detective with considerable hesitation. * Speak out, I tell you ! ’ exclaimed the Major in great agitation. ‘ It appears, then, that just about the time that this sudden occasional alteration in your wife’s temper and general kind conduct to her two servants took place, she began to be visited by a strange gentleman.’

‘ Is it possible ? ’ ‘A gentleman,’ continued the detective, * whom, during all the nine previous years, she had never seen at the cottage before. Indeed, she avers that up to this period Lady Mellish had not, to her knowledge, received any male visitors whatever.’ ‘ Well—go on !’ ‘ This visitor generally called about once a fortnight, and Lady Mellish (Mrs Mellish, the woman called her) always received his visits in private; I mean, that neither the servant nor the page-boy were permitted to be present for more than a few moments together while he stayed. ’ ‘ How long did he remain ?’ ‘Sometimes for only a few minutes—at others for half an hour—sometimes for two or three hours—and once he remained all night.’ ‘ He slept there ?’ ‘ln the spare bed—yes.’ ‘ So, so ! And was nothing overheard at any time as to the nature of their conversation ?’ ‘ Well, yes. The sergeant’s wife, on more than one occasion, thought she heard expostulations and reproaches in a suppressed but affectionate tenderness of tone, which led her to suppose that great intimacy must exist between them ; she also more than once heard a jingling of money, which, from its sound, she fancied was gold.’ ‘ Money 1 Was Ellen—was my wife extravagant? ’ ‘ Oh, no ; I asked the question, The house was liberally supplied, but with the strictest regard to reasonable economy. The tradesmen were periodically paid ; and Lady Mellish, though she dressed well and becomingly, was very careful of her wardrobe. Not a shilling was spent in waste,’ ‘ But did the woman never by any chance hear the name of this strange visitor ? ’ * Never ! ’ ‘ Then how was he announced ? ’ ‘Ho was not announced at all. Whenever he was about to call,‘Lady Mellish told the page that she expected a gentleman to pay a visit at a certain hour, and that, when he came he was to be shown into the drawingroom, where, the servant added, she was always prepared to receive him. ’ ‘ Then she must have had accurate foreknowledge of the time of his arrival.’ ‘No doubt of that. And, moreover, my informant also said, that during the period when she was receiving this stranger’s visits, letters not unfrequently came to the cottage with the English post-mark, which had seldom, or never, been the case in previous years, when her sole correspondence seemed to be with you in India. She also remarked that one of these letters invariably came a day or two before the advent of this visitor.’ ‘ Did the man ever dine or take any refreshment at the cottage V f Vo be continued .l