ROMANCES OF UNEXPECTED FORTUNES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 178, 18 July 1908, Page 3

ROMANCES OF UNEXPECTED FORTUNES.

"Until death do you part." The clergyman pronounced the benediction over the kneeling couple. James Hespinell and .Mary May were husbaikl and wife.

The marriage had been celebrated in Ta little church at Oheetham, Manchester. It was a very quiet affair. There were hardly more than a dozen persons pre- ' sent at the ceremony—friends of the bride and bridegroom. Far away from the rails at which the young couple knelt, close to the open door of the church, a woman had entered unnoticed and had seated herself to watch the ceremony. The function was not brightened by any of those usual features that commend a wedding to the interest of strangers. The bride wore a working everyday dress—there were no beautiful bouquets—no prettily-costumed bridesmaids. The organ did not peal forth. There was no red carpet laid down for that young married couple to walk on. Xo bell rang out a note of joy. But the stranger, an. old lady very plainly dressed, sat the ceremony through. Perhaps she had found her way into the church to enjoy a rest. Or perhaps she had been attracted by the fact that there was a wedding o"f J some sort taking place there—that solemn devoting of life to life till death comes to take them apart. The clergyman pronounced his blessing. -The wedding was over, and the bride and bridegroom earne down the aisle and passed out into the street. The friends of the couple followed .them. Only the strange woman remained. Something in the wedding had apparently interested her. She waited till the woman caretaker of the church came to her.

"That young fellow and that girl are a strange couple," she remarked. " 1 did not see her face till she came down the aisle. Fancy a man marrying a girl like that!" - The bride was about twenty-two—tall, well proportioned, with dark brown

eyes and hair. She might, indeed, have been a bride of whom any bridegroom would have been proud, had it not been for this great white-seamed scar on one side of her face—a cruel sear that made it positively ugly. To the strange lady it was a mystery that a tall, young, handsome fellow such as James liespiuell should have found such a bride. The caretaker sighed. The stranger did not, then, know the history of that couple! No, the old lady said, she knew nothing about them. Mary Slay had, the caretaker told her, been until lately one of the most beautiful of girls. None among the congregation worshipping in - that church had i equalled her in beauty, and many had' envied the lucky young fellow who hail the good fortune to win her heart. Her father was a shopkeeper in the neighbourhood, residing in the rooms over his business premises with his daughter Mary and a little girl, a sister. The birth of that younger child had rendered John May a widower. A fire that occurred on his premises hud nearly bereft him of those two children, who were, now that his wife was dead, all he had to comfort him. It had been while rescuing her little sister from the flames that the beautiful girl had received the scars that had blighted her beauty and made her what she was. "Some young fellows would have cried off," said the caretaker," but James Hespineil is not one of that sort. He has remained true to the girl who won his heart while she was beautiful."

The old lady suggested that possibly Jaincs Hespinell foresaw some advantage to be gained by the match. Perhaps the bride would bring Jiim some money? * No, Mary May had nothing save "the clothes site stood up in." If love brought luck, then the couple ought to be happy, but there was little enough behind that pair save love. Hespinell was in a post in a chemical manufacturer's works at a small weekly salary. But it really seemed as if Fortune had turned her wheel to bring the young couple prosperity. The death of an uncle unexpectedly placed young Hespinell in possession of something like £250. That money gave him the chance he had so longed for—that of taking up the work of an engineer. •' You are just the kind of man we want, 1 should say, Mr. Hespinell," said the gentleman whom Hespinell interviewed some time later in answer to an advertisement in one of the London daily papers. "We have had a vast number of people applying for the post, ft is one that offers to the right man enormous opportunities of making a fortune. To a young, ambitious man, anxious to get on in the world, the opportunity *s

It was for a young engineer to pro ceed to Australia on behalf of a goldmining syndicate to survey the properties that the syndicate had purchased and report on them. The post was worth £7OO-a year. There were also prospects, the advertiser declared, in connection with the position. A month or two later James Hespinell and his wife sailed for Australia. ,

Little (lid James Hcspiuell dream of the terrible adventures that awaited him when he entered on his new position. Some few months later lie stood, pale and weak, in the dock of an Australian court charged with the attempted murder of the manager of the mine! ••' I am not guilty," he pleaded. " The charge is atrocious. It was he who attacked we; I only defended myself.'' For weeks and weeks James Hcspiuell had lain in the hospital hovering between life and death, and waiting recovery, with that terrible charge hanging over him. Only occasionally his wife, the •woman with the scarred face, was allowed to come near him. He was in custody, and the police who hovered round his* bed watched those two jealously. > A» the pale-faced woman, worn with, sorrow and anxiety, bent over him and took his hand in hers, breathing words of encouragement and hope that were far from her own heart, the watchers strained their ears to catch each. word. AccoTding to the manager of the. mine, ] Hespinell had suddenly attacked him and had drawn a revolver aud fired at him. His aim had been false. The bullet had sped harmlessly by, and then the manager had himself fired and his bullet had taken effect, shattering the arm of his would-be murderer so that his weapon dropped from his hand to the ground. Then they had closed in a desperaic struggle. . "It is a lie—a lie!" cried Hespinell. "It was 1 that was attacked. He tried

to murder me." " You have listened, gentlemen of the jury, to the story of the prosecution," Siiki HcspincU's Imrrister at the close. of the case against the prisoner. "It.will now he my duty to expose to you one of the most audacious pieces of villainy that have been brought to light, llie offender, was-really, he declared, the victim of a gapg of scoundrels who had to their other crimes sought to add murder. Almost from the Hrst arrival of the young engineer on the spot of the alleged mine he had discovered that the property was worthless—that the glowing reports sent home regarding it were

untrue. ~ "He was voung—lie was poor, san lie barrister! " Thev thought it woul' >e an easy matter to prevail on him t lecome dishonest and aid in the mimiit us scheme by transmitting home fills eports that his employers might use u preying upon the small investors a lome ° Reports with his name to then rould lie valuable. But he would no nake them. Prow that moment his lit ras in danger." Was it true? Hespinell's barrister, n nntirmation of his statement, showoc hat the prisoner's name had actuall; ieen forged to reports he had neve mule, and those reports had been use. o delude the public in Britain and t< heat them by persuading them to pu lieir bard-ear'ned savings into propertie lint really had no value whatever. Tim mil been done unknown to the man 11 he dock. He was never to know of it le hail been marked for death! James Hespinell was straining his sol: ,ing wife to his breast. The jury lin. eturned a verdict of ''Sot guilty," an he shout of joy which went up fror hose in court drowned the sobs tha hook her as she buried her face in hi ireast and clung to him. He was Ac hired guiltless of that atrocious crim llege.l against him. Guiltless! Bu that was to become of them? His ac users and their employers in Louclo: liid disappeared ns if the earth had clos tl over them. They had escaped wit: heir ill-gotten gains. James Hespinell penniless, and with that shattered righ ,vm that, he woull never be able to U3< [naiii. must struggle as best he migh o earn a livelihood for his wife and tin iltle baby girl who had come to them! ".lames Hespinell." The name figure, iver a little shop ill a by-street of Jinn hester in the vear IKO2. James Hespi icll, disabled V>v that lmllet-shot frnn; ari'iing a livelihood as an engineer, hsy: eturned to lirilain to make another bid or fortune. Mary's father had been a iietnre-dealer, and Mary herself knew meh almut the in-; and nuts of the busies. With a little capital a friend lent hem Hespinell had set up and flourished n a small way. The business brought

I them in a livelihood and a little over. Hespineil was a saving man. All seenii ed to promise well. " Failure of the Liberator Building Society. Extraordinary disclosures." Those words in huge type in the papers <me morning brought consternation to tlie homes of thousands. In none, perhaps, did these words bring greater dismay and despair than they did in the little home of James Hespineil. If that news was true they were ruined! A few months Inter the little home of •lames Hespineil was being sold up! He hud lost all! The man with the useless

right hand and the woman with thscarred face—now with deep lines on :t ploughed with care—were to be cast out to face tlie world again and fare as best they might. "You are Mr. James Hespineil!" A strange gentleman had entered the shop and was facing him across the counter. " 1 inn."

Hespineil wondered who he might b';. Was this some creditor he did not know or his representative! However, it did not matter now.

"Are you the James Hespineil who some fifteen years ago married a lady at a church iu Cheetham—a lady with a scarred face! You will excuse my asking such a question, 1 hope. 1 do not do so out of rude curiosity. It is a matter of business."

James Hespineil stared at him for a moment. Then he grew angry.

" 1 don't know what business can have anything to do with Mary's face!" he exclaimed. "What does her face matter to anyone but me! Scarred! Yea, it may be! Do you know lmiv she got those scars! In venturing her life for one that she loved! She was beautiful before; I have thought her more Ix'autiful ever since." "Ah! It seems to me," said the stranger, coolly, " that you certainly are the man I want. I saw your name in yesterday's paper in the list of bankrupts. Will you give me the date of your wedding!" James Hespineil did so. ; "That settles it," said the stranger, glancing at a paper he held in his hand. "There was a certain lady present at your wedding—a Mrs. Ellen Crowther." James Hespineil declared that he had never heard of the name before.

" She died four years ago," said the stranger. "I" am her solicitor. I have made inquiries for you since without success, 'Mr. Hespineil. By the will of the deceased lady you are entitled to the sum of nine thousand pounds. In her will the old lady says the money is left to you as a mark of admiration of a noble character. In some other papers she left behind Mrs. Crowther was more explicit. It seems she was at your wedding, and left you the money for marrying a lady in spite of some disfigurement she had received in deed of selfsacrifice."

The little old lady who had strayed into the church, and who had afterwards spoken to the caretaker and listened to her history of the humble couple there united in holy matrimony, had not forgotten them! Out of her estate of something like £70,000 she had found that sum of £O,OOO to bestow on a man who married the girl with the face disfigured while risking her life for another, and the husband of the wife who came to him " with only the clothes she stood up in."