NO. 965.

Observer, Volume 3, Issue 69, 7 January 1882, Page 264

NO. 965.

"Bt.axche will marry the fellow, you mark my words." " Oh, nonsense, Charley ! she'll never be so foolish as that. A man only just come to_ the colony, of whom we know positively nothing ! Blanche has been much too well brought up for that." " My dear child, what the dickens has a girl's bringing-up to do with her affections ? Blanche is in love with Tom Scott, and she'll marry him, or my name is not Charles Parker." The speaker was a well-to-do young tradesman of Melbourne, and the lady he addressed was his wife and Blanche Erroll's elder sister. Blanche lived with them in their pretty little home, a pleasant hour's drive from the town, and the Tom Scott in question— a good-looking, pleasant-spoken young Englishman — had somehow or other got'acquaintcd with the family, and become a constant visitor. It was realty Charley's fault, for he brought him home in the first'instance to dinner. Tom was a capital companion, full of anecdote, and knew all the latest gossip in the Old World, and Charley had taken a fancy to him. It was only when he discovered that Blanche, his sister-in-law, had also taken a great fancy to the visitor that Charley began to wonder if lie had done right in introducing a young fellow of whose position he knew nothing into the family circle. It was too late to do much when the real state of affairs dawned upon him, for Mr Scott had proposed to Blanche, who was of age, and her own mistress ; and Blanche, though she had not said "Yes " right off, was yet in such a frame of mind that her brother-in-law felt certain she would be Mrs Scott, and said so. t.iepiMs And Mrs Scott, in due time, she became ; and her husband was a lucky fellow, for not only was she one of the prettiest girls in Melbourne, but she had a good round thousand pounds, which her father had left her, besides an interest in the business which had been his, and of which Mr Parker, who had been his manager, became the principal on his death. Charley Parker didn't like the marriage at all. In the first place, he knew that the young Englishmen who come out to the colonies sometimos have any tiling but a pleasant history ; and in the next he objected to a stranger like Tom having an interest in the business, which, as Blanche's husband, of course he would have. For a time Mr and Mrs Scott were happy enough, and nothing occurred to justify Parker's fears. Whenever lie visited them he found Tom a kind and loving husband, and Blanche's pretty face as free from care as it was before she wore a wedding-ring. At last Mr Parker began to sec that he had been wrong in opposing the marriage. Tom never troubled liim about the business. He took his cheque quarterly and banked it. There were no signs of extravagance ; and Blanche, who, in due course, added the usual baby to the picture of domestic bliss, declared that there wasn't a better husband than Tom in tlie world. The only thing that set her thinking sometimes was the fact that no letters from the old country ever arrived for her husband, and that he never spoke of his father or mother. He told her, when she asked him, that they were dead, and that he had no relatives in England. It was after they had been married about two years that the aspect of affairs suddenly changed. Tom became restless and low-spirited. He wasn't half so affectionate as he had been, and lie left off taking notice of baby's pretty ways. His wife fretted visiblj-, and he tried to soothe her. He told her his was a queer sort of disposition, and that every now and then he had a fit of the fidgets. It would soon be over. Unfortunately, it was not soon over. The fit of fidgets increased in intensity. Tom became ill-tempered and sullen. He would go out early in the morning, and return late at night. i One day he went out early in the morning, and didn't return at all. Blanche, in a terrible state, rushed off to her brother-in-law, and for days the family remained in a state of suspense as to the missing man's fate. Blanche thought an accident had happened to him, and that he might have been robbed and murdered. At the end of a week, however, Mr Parker had ascertained enough to convince him that Mr Scott's absence was a voluntary one. On going to the bank he discovered that every penny standing in Scott's name had been drawn out by cheque the day previous to his disappearance, and that, wherever he was, he had Blanche's thousand pounds with him. Up to the time of his flight the sum had remained intact, the income drawn from the business having been sufficient for their modest household expenses. ■Mr Parker also ascertained at the bank that Scott must have brought money to the colony, for after his marriage with Blanche he had banked nearly a thousand pounds himself. The balance of this had also been drawn out in cash a few days previously. It was evident, therefore, that Mr Scott's disappearance was prearranged, and there seemed little doubt that lie had left Melbourne as mysteriously as he had entered it. Gradually poor Blanche made up her mind that she had been cruelly deserted, and, selling off her home, went back to lire with her sister. Her only consolation was the child, and many a time w»e little Blanche's face wet with tears that trickled from the mother's eyes. Blanche, had loved her handsome, light-hearted husband with all the passion and fervour of a young and guileless heart 5 and even now, in spite of his cruelty and cowardice, she never closed her eyes at night without praying that God would shield the father of her child from harm wherever he ftright be.

While Mrs Scott was keeping the first year of her strange bereavement in strict retirement in Melbourne, there was living in London a young

""♦The incidents on which this story is founded ftcfcually occurred. The parties concerned are still living, and one of them is well known. For their sates, certain alterations have been made in the plot and the denouement in order to prevent identification.

wenty lie fell in love with Mr Brewtnall's eldest daughter, Ella. Mr Brcwtnall was quite willing, and the young man was very useful to him. He made him a sort of secretary without salary, and also allowed him to call at the office in tho city and take home his (Mr Brewtnall's) black bag, and various I messages of a domestic character. Of course, when Ebenezer brought papa's bag Ella asked him in, and of course Ebenezer went, and remained for an hour or so in Christian converse with the damsel. It would have been all very nice if the sweethearting had stopped at Ebenezer. Unfortunately, Lottie, finding it awkward to play gooseberry every evening, determined to have a sweetheart too, and found one in Tom Sharpe, the good-looking young fellow who lodged at Mrs McPherson's, opposite. Papa Brewtnall knew Tom, because Tom went to the city by the same omnibus every morning, and was very polite to him • and Tom in time found out about the black bag and the parcels, and took to calling five minutes before Ebenezer and walking off with them. ' Then, of course, Tom Avas asked in, and at last it grew to a family evening party of four — Ella and Ebenezer, and Lottie and Tom. Ebenezer and Ella were going to be married when he was five-and-twenty, and when Ebenezer had saved enough money to take a house. Lottie and Tom— well, as a matter of fact, about a year after these evening parties commenced, Lottie, for certain very good and sufficient reasons, was obliged to inform her pa that, so far from intending to wait five years, like Ella, she didn't intend to wait at all, and— and— well, she couldn't help it, but— oh, she hoped papa would forgive her ! — she and Tom had got married six months ago on the sly. Mr Brewtnall swallowed his hot tea at a gulp, and nearly had an apoplectic fit. But it was no good being cross now ; the mischief was done, and he must make the best of it. [ He ascertained that Master Tom was in receipt

over to keep the peace, and thus freed tlie family from annoyance for a time ; and then Tom must have gone away and got into very bad company, for the next the family heard of him was that he had embezzled a large sum of money from his employers and iled the country. Mr Browtnall was very glad to be rid of so troublesome a son-in-law, and no ouo could be really grieved when the baby, who had been weak and ailing from the first, made a speedy exit from the theatre of life, in which it had made such an inauspicious first appearance. It "was about three years after Tom Sharpe's disappearance that one night late a knock came at the door. Lottie, who was in the hall, thinking it was the boy with the evening newspaper, opened it, and then started back with a cry. It was Tom ! Of course, Mr Brewtnall was not at home. He had gone to the docks that evening to preside over a society which had just been formed to teach sailors crochet work, in the hope that it would keep them out of mischief in the evenings when ashore. Tom slipped in and closed the door. His face was "white, and when he spoke his voice was hoarse. There was a strange look in his eyes, and Lottie knew he had been drinking heavily. Ebenezer had run up into the hall, hearing Lottie's cry, but directly he saw Tom he trotted down the stairs into the breakfast-room, again, and told Ella who was there. " Gro for a policeman !" cried Ella, "or there'll be mischief done." Without a second thought, Ebenezer, as pale as a turnip, slipped out the back way, and went up the area steps into the street to look for a constable. Tom, in the meanwhile, had caught Lotti by the -wrist, and his hot breath swept her cheek. "Lottie, old girl," he said, "I've come back for you, you see. Put on your bonnet and come with me. You're my wife, and by 1 mean to claim you !"

" Leave me alone, Tom !" cried Lottie, trem- * bliug and struggling, " or I'll call for help !" The drunken man thrust his hand into his breast pocket, and drew out a pistol. "Look here, Lottie!" he exclaimed; "if you don't come with me, I'll shoot you — there !" / It is probable he only meant to frighten her, • and it had the desired effectLottie, putting her hands before her eyes, fell on her knees, and shrieked for mercy. Ella came running upstairs, alarmed at her sister's cries. At that moment Ebenezor arrived with the policeman, and brought him iv the back way. Tom was still standing with his back to the door, and the pistol levelled at Lottie, when the officer, followed by Ebenezcr, appeared upon .the scene. The drunken man's face went livid with rage. "Seize him!" shrieked Ebenczer. "He'll kill her !" " Touch me, and you're a dead man !" cried Tom, pointing the pistol at the constable. ; The officer made a dash forward to seize Tom's outstretched arm. At that moment there was a loud report, and the unfortunate policeman fell forward with a groan. The drunken madman had shot him through the heart !

# * # * * Wilful murder ! That -was the verdict when the whole story had been sifted. The motive for the murder was strong enough. The theory that it was the deed of a drunken madman fell to the ground. The prosecution declared it to be a deliberate assassination of the constable. Sharp had reason to dread the consequence of the arrest, because he woidd have been tried for embezzlement, and on that charge he was liable to a long term of penal servitude. It came out in evidence that he had spent large sums iv dissipation since his arrival in England from abroad, but the police had been unable to find out where he had been during the last three years. The ease created intense excitement in London, from the fact that the murderer was the son-in-law of a well-known philanthropist, and exertions were made in many quarters to prove that the pistol went off accidentally. But the verdict of wilful murder was returned, and Tom Sharpe was sentenced to death. At the last moment, owing to the unflagging exertions of the people opposed to capital punishment, and the fact that there was a semblance of doubt as to the actual intention of the man, the sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life, and the ill-starred man passed into _ the lingering life in death that is a thousand times more horrible than the swift vengeance of Marwood's rope. * # # * *

Mr find Mrs Parker, and Blanche and her child, lmtl come to England for a short stay. Mr Parker's business had increased rapidly, and he bad sent an exhibit to the Paris Exhibition, and come over -with it, bringing the ladies for the trip. From Paris they came to London, to see the sights of the great metropolis. " Blanchie must go to Madame Tuscand's and see the waxworks," said Mr Parker one morning. " I think -we -will go this afternoon." That afternoon accordingly the Australians set out from their hotel for the famous exhibition in Baker-strest. They were delighted with the kings and queens and the noble lords and ladies in their splendid raiment, and Blanchie, the child, went and sat down by an old gentleman who moved his head about and took snuff, and presently Mrs Parker, wishing to sit down too, asked the old gentleman if lie would mind moving up a little bit higher, and the people standing near laughed right out. Then Mrs Parker turned round and laughed too, for she discovered the old gentleman was William Cobbett in wax. "We must see the Chamber of Horrors !" exclaimed Mr Parker presently. " What about little Blanchie ?" said Mrs Scott. " I'm afraid she would be terrified." " I'm not sure I should like it, dear," suggested Mrs Parker ; I've heard some of the figures are very dreadful. Suppose you go first and see." "' All right," said Mr Parker, " I will." He took the catalogue from his wife, paid his sixpence, and jnissod into, the gloomy collection of murderers and miscreants not without a slight tremor himself. With the catalogue in his hand, lie shuddered at the dying Marat as the life-blood dripped from the wound that Charlotte Corday's avenging knife had made. He gazed compassionately on the poor old prisoner of the Bastille, who had grown to love the only companions of his solitude — the rats. He turned away with a shudder from the villainous countenance of Burke and Hare, and remembered, as lie gazed at Mrs Manning in her black satin gown, how the lady's appearance in one at her execution had sent black satin dresses out of fashion for years. When he came to where the wicked people were crowded close together, and found how pleasant and gentle some of them looked, he took to reading the catalogue firsts and then searching out the subject, so that he might see if the face was anything like he expected it to be. The first number he tried in this way was No. 9G5. He read the account in the catalogue. It was the portrait-model of a young man who had been condemned to death for murder, and who was xindergoing penal scrditude for life. Then he looked up at the figure thus numbered, and started back with a cry of horror that caused the people about him to turn from the waxworks and gaze at him. No. 965 was Blanche's husband, Tom Scott, who had so mysteriously disappeared from Melbourne. Mr Parker sat down for a moment to collect his senses, then with a white face he staggered out of the ghastly room. " Come away !" he said to his Avife and her sister ; " come away ! It's turned me sick. For God's sake don't enter that room 1" They obeyed him silently, and went out into the air ; but they kept wondering what it was that had so xxnnerved Mr Parker in the Chamber of Horrors. Before he left England ho investigated the whole case, and learnt enough to prove that poor

-wife who also liad been deserted under the cruellest circumstances. Lottie Sliarpe was the datiglitor of a gentleman of means and position — one Mr Brewtnall. Mr Brewtnall was a man who spent much, time and a considerable amount of money in improving tlie moral and social status of his fellowcitizens. He was connected with scores of philanthropic mevements, and was the author of innumerable pamphlets upon the religious questions of the day. Always ready to make a speech on temperance, take the chair at a mothers' meeting, or discourse to Young Men's Mutual Improvement Societies, Mr Brewtnall had his evenings fully occupied, and had little time to spare for his more immediate family affairs. He went to .business at nine, dined out m the middle of the day. and, as he generally attended six evening meetings a week, it was very rarely that he reached his home before half -past ten or eleven at night. Under these circumstances, being a widower, his daughters Lottie and Ella were compelled to fall back upon each other's society for amusement ; and they must have found it insufficient for their demands, for they both considered it necessary to have a sweetheart. Ella's sweetheart was a nice, respectable young fellow, and a youth after Mr Brewtnall's own heart. His parents had given him a Biblical name, and called him Ebenezer. With such a name the young man's pursuits were limited. An Ebenezer could hardly patronise frivolous entertainments, or play at billiards, or smoke. Consequently, young Mr Ebenezer Merritt cultivated early in life tliose circles where his name was most likely to be received with the respect due to it. At seven he collected money for missionary enterprise; at ten lie explained the Bible to a class at Sunday-school ; at fifteen he addressed mothers' meetings on the principles of Christian household management; at eighteen he was a leading debater on theological problems at the Young Men's Christian Association j and at

of twenty-five shillings a week, out of which lie spent thirty shillings, and that his friends would do nothing for him. As on the previous clay, Mr Brcwtnall had giveu a hundred pounds to the Zenana women, he couldn't well do less for his own daughter. Lottie was duly furnished with a sum of money, apartments were taken for her and Tom, and she went off with her young husband, and in a short time the reason that she had made haste to confess her wifehood became apparent. Master Tom was a jolly young husband as long as things went straight, and Lottie's father supplied them with money ; but the baby he voted an awful nuisance in apartments, and suggested " the old man" should furnish them a house. This "the old man " politely declined to do ; whereupon Tom, pressed by outstanding creditors, worried at home, and repenting at leisure his hasty marriage, rushed to oxxtside distractions for consolation, and found them at the billiard table, on the turf, and in the music hall. Eesult to Mr Tom Sharpe : County-courfced out of his mind, lectured by his father in-law, and utterly down on his luck. Result to Mrs Tom Sharpe : Tears, hysterics, misery, a black eye (from Tom), and an offer of protection (from pa) — the former received with shrieks and vows of- vengeance ; the latter accepted with thanks " for baby's sake, poor dear." Directly his wife deserted him Tom felt very miserable^ and tried the effect of brandy-and-water. His misery yielded to the treatment, and was replaced by indignation. The indignation took the form of ringing his father-in-law's bell at all hours of the night, and demanding his wife. One evening Ebcnozer went out to try and get him away, and received a terrible black eye, which almost broke the poor young man's heart. It was so utterly out of character with a Biblical name to have a black eye, that Ebenezer felt that lie had disgraced himself in a way which was enough to bring his sponsors out of their graves. He had pluck enough, however, to bind Tom

Blanche had been most cruelly betrayed. There was, however, this consolation — that the wretched ■criminal Avas never her legal husband. Some day Mr Parker thinks he will toll that she is a free woman, free to marry again ; but the story he will have to tell is so ghastly that he will never divulge it, I fancy, unless he sees it is necessary for his sister-in-law's ■happiness that he should do so.