tic and
Great Western Railway. Theirs was a rough and arduous life. But Mrs.
Dyson was thoroughly happy in driving her husband about in a buggy among
bears and creeks. She did not know fear and loved danger: "My husband
loved me and I loved him, and in his company and in driving him about in
this wild kind of fashion I derived much pleasure." However, Mr. Dyson's
health broke down, and he was obliged to return to England. It was at
Darnall that the fatal acquaintance with Peace began. Living next
door but one to the Dysons, Peace took the opportunity of introducing
himself, and Mr. Dyson "being a gentleman," took polite notice of his
advances. He became a constant visitor at the house. But after a time
Peace began to show that he was not the gentleman Mr. Dyson was. He
disgusted the latter by offering to show him improper pictures and "the
sights of the town" of Sheffield.

The Dysons tried to shake off the unwelcome acquaintance, but that was
easier said than done. By this time Peace had set his heart on making
Mrs. Dyson leave her husband. He kept trying to persuade her to go to
Manchester with him, where he would take a cigar or picture shop, to
which Mrs. Dyson, in fine clothes and jewelry, should lend the charm of
her comely presence. He offered her a sealskin jacket, yards of silk,
a gold watch. She should, he said, live in Manchester like a lady, to
which Mrs. Dyson replied coldly that she had always lived like one and
should continue to do so quite independently of him. But Peace would
listen to no refusal, however decided its tone. Dyson threw over
the card into Peace's garden. This only served to aggravate his
determination to possess himself of the wife. He would listen at
keyholes, leer in at the window, and follow Mrs. Dyson wherever she
went. When she was photographed at the fair, she found that Peace had
stood behind her chair and by that means got himself included in the
picture. At times he had threatened her with a revolver. On one occasion
when he was more insulting than usual, Mrs. Dyson forgot her fear of him
and gave him a thrashing. Peace threatened "to make her so that neither
man nor woman should look at her, and then he would have her all to
himself." It was with some purpose of this kind, Mrs. Dyson suggested,
that Peace stole a photograph of herself out of a locket, intending to
make some improper use of it. At last, in desperation, the Dysons moved
to Banner Cross. From the day of their arri