CHAPTER XIX. SIR HUGH'S ADVICE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2149, 17 April 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHAPTER XIX. SIR HUGH'S ADVICE.

' Did you see George on Friday ?' naked Sir Hugh, after they had reached the Bpot which he had indicated as the. length of their walk, and^had begun retracing their steps. ' Yes, he cam* in when I was ill. I scarcely know what I said to htm though, for I had been so dreadfully ehooked by a poor fisber-glri'e death.' ' What fisher-girl ?' •Little Katie, old Alsie's granddaughter—the old woman who used to go to the Hall when your— when Lady Manners was alive.' 'You go about among these people sometimes, don't you ?' eaid Sir Hugh, after a moment* pause. * I want you to —well, I mean, if there is any distress, would you mind asking me to give you some help sometimes ?' 1 No, indeed, I shall be very glad. It is Tery good of you to think of it, Sir Hugh.' 1 Not it ! I'm not good, Miss Williams, but I've a kind of interest in some of them. Do you know many of them V « Yes, I think I do." ' Do you know the Richardsons ?' •Yes,' answered Mi?s Williams with some hesitation. • Because I believe that old fellow— that old Richardson, is a perfect martyr to rheumatism— so would you mind giving him a few ponnds occasionally ? I know his daughter, Pretty Peggy as they call her here, but she's such a deuced croud little creature she won't oven look at one's money— so' and Sir Hugh turned away his head, ' it would have to be understood, you know, that it wasn't mine, but your own money.' Miss Williams was silent ' Perhaps you don't like to do it ?' said Sir Hugh, looking round at her,|' if so, of course ' 1 Sir Hnjjh,' began Miss Williams, nervously, and then she paused. • Sir Hugh,' she added, after a moment 1 * hesitation, 1 will you forgive me if I speak to you as a friend— speak to you as a woman who has suffered much ?' ' Perhaps it's best not, Miss Williams,' anßwered Sir Hugh, uneasily. •People have mixed your name with this poor girl's,' continued Miss Williams earnestly. « Oh, Sir Hugh, think twice before— before you break her heart.' • ReaUy, Miss Williams.' ' I have no right to apeak on such a subject,! know, but I asked you to meet me here because I was going to throw myself on your generosity as a man, as a gentleman— and this might perhaps break down some of the barriers between us.' • It is no fr°°d to talk of it,'(he answered quickly. ' Here we are back at the old stone. Will you tell me the end of your story ?' •Yes,* said Miss Williams, and she sighed, and then resumed her former seat on the rock ; -while Sir Hugh, after walking forward a few footsteps, turned and came and stood by her side. « Well,' said he, addressing her, • are you ready to go on ?' ' Where was I ?' she asked. ' Just before your marriage.' 1 Yes. I was telling you about his determination to go to India, and the surprise and annoyance of my family that he [should have fixed to [do so. But one thing struck mo even more, which was that he never spoke of introducing me to any of hit people, though certainly, t in ! point, of family,! was fully his equal; his father having entirely made his own fortune as a, successful merchant in Liverpool. Yet when I hinted something of this be told me I must not expect if. • They would never hear of me marrying ' a girl without money,' he «aid ; 'so we must wait until we are fairly off before we tell them, and thua get out of all the fuse and the row ; but,' he added, ' I am i quite independent of them, and am my own master.' 1 Well, time went on, and every day brought me nearer to my marriage, from which I shrank, when amongst my own familj, with undisguised loathing and disgust. But they would never hear me. My eldest sister came home at this time, and anxiously urged on the preparations, and also gave me to understand that she would gladly accompany me to India, but when I eagerly seized on this idea, and asked Captain Claytou to take her, he ' gave me a very decided negative. He would have no one but myself, ho said, I and I remember shuddering at the prospect of his constant companionship ; t for in apite of a species of beauty— in spite of his generous gifts and passionate love — I could not endure his presence, and shrank from being alone with him as from ; some hateful evil. ! 'But the day came at 'last, and we were married — were married quietly in tjhe parish church at Westport, and a week afterwards we started pa our jour-, i ney to India.' • And your people were there ail right at the ceremony, I suppose?' asked Sir Hugh. 'Yea, my father gave me away, and my mother and nisters, and Mrs Pocock were also present. We had breakfast at Mrs Pocock's house afterwards, and then he and I went to London.' •Then,' said Sir Hugh, «you may take, my word for it, Miss Williams, or rather Mrs Clayton, that you were married. From what I know or Clayton, he is too selfish a fellow to put his neck into such a noose »• that. It would have been bigamy, do you see? I bet a hundred pounds the other was the false marriage and that he deceived that woman. r She was not a lady, I believe f ' • No, she was an Irish girl he had met in Scotland somewhere, and she was in service there ; but they were married— so at least she said, in Ireland, and th n he forsook her That was her story, and I believed it. Sir Hugh Manner*, I was thankful to believe it. lam thankful to believe it now.' • He was such s brute.' ' From the first he was possessed by the* most mad and furious jealousy. He was jealous of the' waiters at hotels ; of his soldier servants; of, in fact, every living creature who came near me. He used to make me wear a thick black veil if I went out, and was for ever inspecting and tormenting me, and I never felt sure that a day would end without some dreadful scene, and really believed my life to be in constant danger.' 'Pleasant!' • One of his peculiarities also was he would allow me to make no female friends, and I lived almost a perfectly secluded and isolated life in general. Bat one day Mrs Ross, the Colonel's wife, came in during & paroxysm of fury ill whioh he was indulging, and ahe felt

such sympathy for me that she wrote me a note afterwards, offering me any kindness find assistance in her power, and sometimes when he was on duty after this I used privately to see her, and nhe leurut to like me, and to pity me, and befriended me in the end, when I determined to leave him.' 1 1 wonder you did not do so before.' ' I often threatened, but ho had one reply — he would shoot me like a dog if I dared to epeak of it. I think now, though then I was too young to know, that he felt I had nover cared for him, and that if I had been wise enough to disguise my feelingp, he would have treated me better and more kindly than he did. 1 1 Well, this miserable life went on for nearly a year. We were at Calcutta for most of the time, but went up the country for some months, and it must have been after our return that you saw me, for we had not been back many weeks when bis first wife, or at least the unhappy woman who claims to bo, made her appearance.' 'She came to me first when I was aloue. She had gone through miserable hardship*, and bad almost begged her way from England, coining out in one of the steamers, and she was brown, worn, and travel-stained. Poor creature, t-he had come a long way for what I was praying night and day to escape from. But she loved this bad, cruel man, strange as it may seem, and lying on her bosom was a wasted, dying ohild, whose false father nhe had come to seek, and when she told me her story, I believed it, and told her at once that I would go. ' She took a letter that night for me to Mrs Ross, but that lady came and urged me not to give up my position, pointing out in the strongest language how pain* ful and preoarious would be the prospect before me. But she had not lived with a husband she hat«d, and she could not understand that I could literally rejoice at what I said was a righteous opportunity of releasing myself from this hateful tie. ' She then urged. me at least to test the truth of the woman's tale ;f; f and against my will — but after having made, every preparation for my flight, fort I had previously sent, under cover of night, all ray dresses and jewels to Mrs floss's, as I knew they would be almost all that I had to depend on for subsistence until I could obtain some situation —I called her in at her earnest requent, when he was sitting at his ease amid his luxurious comforts and wealth, the poor faded creature whom he had flung away from his boiom to starve.' ' What did he say ?' asked Sir Hugh. ' I shall never forget that night— never, never. He was sitting, as I said, at his ease, smoking and drinking, when I led her in. ' Hugh,' I said, ' you know who this is ?' And he started and turned deadly pale when he saw her. ' Where have you come from ?' he said at last, in a husky voice to the poor trembling woman. Then she fell down at his feet, and implored him to do her justice. 'I'm your wife, you know, Hogh,' she said ; 'your lawful wife, and this is your lawful child.' Oh ! Sir Hugh, can I tell you what he did then ?— He struck her, and spurned her, and called her vile names, and ' bid her take her bastard from his sight.' She started to her feet when he said this. ; ' . 'God will judge between you and me, Hugh Clayton,' she said. 'God will judge between you and me. my hutbandV Then he made her some kind of offer, that if ahe would go away, he would provide for her and the child ; but she was firm. 1 Long and far I have come te you,' she said; 'come to claim my boy's just right*, and I'm not to be put off with a few grudged pounds. I'm sorry for this kind young lady,' she added 'with much humility, ' she has fed me and the babe, and been good to us, and she's more fit to be' your wife than I am. But the Lord will reward her, and she would not stay with you now — no, I am sure she would 1 not stay with you now.' ' Then he swore a fearful oath that I should stay with him, or that I should die ; and so terrified did I become that I pretended at last 'to yield, giving, however, a look at the unfortunate woman to mtice her understand my meaning, add in the end he came to 'some kind of agreement with her that bir claims 'shbuld "be properly investigated, ana for 1 the night at l«ast she withdrew. : After' she 'was gone ho called me to 'him', and with passionate entreaties, implored me not to allow her falsb tale, as he called it, ,to influence me. He did not 'deny that she had lived with him, butt totally dfenied the marriage ; but on trie Urging him pn thy knees to speak the truth,' he admitted ' some absurd farce, to satisfy her conscience,' had ■ been gone through in Ireland, and as be said ' those words I made up my mind, for in her eyes at least I knew this poor wronged crtature was his wife. ' 'I disguised my feelings well—reproaching him, but at last apparently believing, and yielding; and so the storm died away, and night came on and darkness; and while he slept — whilothe'man whom 1 had believed fdr nearly 'a year to be my' husband lay in his heavy 1 slumber, I stole from 1 his side— stole from his house and his hoirie for ever.' ' ' ' You did right; yes, by tToye f you! d^d rightj' said Sir Hugh, energetically. •I had no other course,' |Qr/J,,yas afraid for my life, v Mrs tßosj, ,vainly,,impV>red me to expose his gruel cqndufit, but wjiat good, woulfl I have gajped ? i All I asked of her and the, good Colonel, ; was sbeUer and conoealpnent, .anjl, while [tfiat mUprable, man was .searching i Ipdja in vain for me, , rushing from one railway , to i the other, ' and i telegraphing jbo every ■tationi I lay hidden close ,to his own door — at his Colonel's hpuse. When he wm away on one of thene expeditions, pursuing* some , imaginary clue, m to whither I had fled, I, stared on my homeward journey, and, disguised as a native woman, reach England safely. But almost immediately on my arrival I heard from Mrs Row that Captain Clayton had applied lor leave, and that he was also coming to Europe. Then I determined to drop my old life for ever, for I knew if I returned to my own family, he would seek me out, ao I wept to a registry office for governes»e« ; in Lqndon and entered there a false name — the one I now bear— and you know the roit P Mrs Ross gave me a reference, after solemnly pro? miaing never to reveal my existepco, and your cousin Adelaide Manners engaged me— and so I came here.' ' I can Only say again,' said Sir Hugh; with muoh sympathy iv his manner 1 , ' that lam truly sorry, Mrs— l beg your pardon — Miss Williams ; and if I can be of any service to you iv any way, if in faot I oan do anything to help you, pray command me. But one thing you have fofgotten, you have not told me your real name.' It ii Barritt— Amy Barritt. If you do not quite believe me,' with a very sad smile, you must go t» Westport and ask for p»pa. 'He is, I suppose, still living, and he is called Richard Barritt, and was a solicitor, and they used to live in Grove Street West ; you can easily find them.' ' Miss Barrit— l shall have to call yon Miss Amy, I think, 1 in general, for your three names puzzle me so — but for once I will give you at all event 3 your original one, and tell Miss Bacri,t thai I do believe her, and what is mord, I respect and honour her.'! l ' I deserve no honour,' she answered turning ftff ay her 'Head, *if I had not

married an I did, if I had gone to be » governess theu I would not now ' Bat here she paused. • I nm sorry for George Manners,' said Sir Hugh, gravely. - Oh ! Sir Hugh,' and she looked nt him appealingly, ' why do you think I have told you my story ? will you despise me very much ? •Do you know what I am going to ask you ?' ' To keep this a secret from him ?' 1 Yes ; 1 cannot bear to part with him now— to part with him, as I ■ know it would be if he knew — for ever.' 1 Do you mean to marry him P' INo no ! I dare not do that. I will never do that. Bat to see him sometimes, to bo friends with him. Oh ! do not despise mp,'she continued. 'I am not very strong, it may not be for long — but I tfant George to cure for me a little yet — to care for me to the end.' Sir Hugh now began walking restlessly up and down before her. IHo is poor, 1 she went on piteously, ' and we could not be married ; that is what I williffl^htarr-'ltiff-wlOng of me, i very wrong, very weak.; butj^jfJ-lugb^ 1 you will do aa J wish ?' ; 'Mm Clayton,' said Sir Hugh .sfywiy pausing before Her, and addressing her, ' for it is rigtot-that I should call you by this name, when I *ay to you what I am going to say— say thaj; though Georga Manners and I are like brothers ; though he is the one man in the world that I have met whom I have never learnt to dislike or despise : yet no woman, no woman like you at least, shall ever appeal to me in vain, and George shall never learn from me that — I will put, it plainly — that the woman ho loves is in. truth the wife of another map.' • You are very cruel.' i •I do not mean to be ; but I want you to realise for a moment what the feeling* of a roan like he is will be when he dis- ■ covers this — for sooner, or later he may— , for do you know that Captain Clayton is i now in England ?' ' Are you sure ?' and she grew pale, and , shuddered as she spoke. 'This far, I met Donovan — you remember him—when I was last in town, ; and he dined with me at tho Club, and we were talking over the good old days, and he mentioned he had seen Clayton the, ' night before, and he spoke of this very ' story. 1 • What did h,e say ?' | What could he say? He knew no* thing but common report. He said the wife— the first wife, I mean — was living somewhere in London, but that Clayton had assured him that she was not his wife ; and I for one believe be is speaking the truth ?* 1 You said nothing about me, I hope ?' 'That I had seen you, you mean? Certainly not ; but I asked about you— about what was known— you understand — and Donovan said Clayton was a broken-hearted man, and drank hard, and that he sometimes fancies you committed suicide, and sometimes one thing and sometimes another ; but that he is terribly altered.' ' Poor, poor fellow !' 'He U to be pitied, I thi,nk,' said Sir Hugh. ,'IIe was really fond of you — and, but I will say no more— aa long as you wish \t I will. never breathe a word on the subject, but if — and in my opinion you act wisely— if you tell George, lam ready of course to confirm every word you have spoken.' ' I' thank you then, at any rate,' and she held out her hand to him. 'I am grateful to you— truly grateful, Sir Hugh. ' You must not say that.' 'And— and do not despise mo very much about George.' ' You mean .because you love him ?' Miss Williams turned away her head. • He is a happy fellow, that's all I can say,' said Sir Hugh, in his old tone ; ' I shall only envy him.' 1 Do not talk to me liko that.' ' Very well and as for despising you, there's a certain fellow of my acquaintance, Miss Amy— by, Jove that'a tho best name after all I — a certain, fellow, as I was saying, whom I despise as heartily as any human being on the very same subject sometimes— and his name is Hugh Manners !' ; 1 You mean about ' ' Never mind who I mean. Bub do you see we are nearly benighted ? What will dear Mrs Gruudy, what will dear Cousin Adelaide say, if she sees us ? But take my, arm, and I will help you, up the hi 11.,. 'No,' said she gently, 'let us «ay grtod-bye here.' And so they parted before they crossed the link's, and then each went ' thoughtfully on their separate ways.