itself to you and to me. It
was a serious misfortune (as she thought) that Mr. Evelin's sufferings
in his last illness, and his wife's anxiety while she was nursing him,
had left them unfit to act in their own defense. They might otherwise
not have submitted to the drunken wretch's claim, without first making
sure that she had a right to advance it. Taking her character into due
consideration, are we quite certain that she was herself free to
marry, when Mr. Evelin unfortunately made her his wife? To that serious
question we now mean to find an answer. With Mrs. Evelin's knowledge of
the affair to help us, we have discovered the woman's address, to begin
with. She keeps a small tobacconist's shop at the town of Grailey in the
north of England. The rest is in the hands of my lawyer. If we make the
discovery that we all hope for, we have your wife to thank for it." He
paused, and looked at his watch. "I've got an appointment at the club.
The committee will blackball the best fellow that ever lived if I don't
go and stop them. Good-by."

The last day of Mrs. Evelin's sojourn in England was memorable in more
ways than one.

On the first occasion in Beaucourt's experience of his married life, his
wife wrote to him instead of speaking to him, although they were both in
the house at the time. It was a little note only containing these words:
"I thought you would like to say good-by to Mrs. Evelin. I have told
her to expect you in the library, and I will take care that you are not
disturbed."

Waiting at the window of her sitting-room, on the upper floor, Lady
Howel perceived that the delicate generosity of her conduct had been
gratefully felt. The interview in the library barely lasted for five
minutes. She saw Mrs. Evelin leave the house with her veil down.
Immediately afterward, Beaucourt ascended to his wife's room to thank
her. Carefully as he had endeavored to hide them, the traces of tears in
his eyes told her how cruelly the parting scene had tried him. It was a
bitter moment for his admirable wife. "Do you wish me dead?" she asked
with sad self-possession. "Live," he said, "and live happily, if you
wish to make me happy too." He drew her to him and kissed her forehead.
Lady Howel had her reward.

Part III.

NEWS FROM THE COLONY.

VI.

FURNISHED with elaborate instructions to guide him, which included
golden materials for bribery, a young Jew holding the place of third
clerk in the office of Dick's lawyer was