any one, but to state my case by word of mouth. So I got the address of a legal firm in good practice, and a week after went up to see them. to see them. In the mean time I saw Mary every day, and had such a happy week. We both made up our minds that the bill would be filed without the slightest delay, and talked of our marriage and our plans as if everything was settled. One thing we didn't do, fortunately-we didn't give out our engagement. I believe the first night I spoke to Mary she told her cousin, from whom she had no secrets, that I had proposed and that she had accepted me. That cousin was this very Lady Rose O'Shea now at F. She was at the ball, of course, but I can't remember her indeed what could I remember of that night except one person and one thing?

But

when Mary found out about the previous marriage, she would tell no one, and wouldn't hear of her father being spoken

VOL. II.

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to, and even refused to answer her cousin's questions about the affair. As she said, 'It would never do till the bill was filed.'

"Of course people suspected and talked, but that didn't matter; no one interfered with us, and we met every day. I could hardly persuade myself to go away to town on the business—it was so delightful down there it was about the only real happiness I ever had; but at last Mary urged me to it, saying it was only a little temporary separation, a little momentary grief, to bring about our complete happiness—and at last I went. I saw the lawyer as soon as I arrived in town. He pricked up his ears when I told him it was a matrimonial case; and when I told him I had plenty of money, and didn't care what I spent on the matter, provided it was done quickly and effectually, he became quite affectionate. Then I stated the whole case to him. When I had finished, he stroked his chin and said,

'It appears to me that you have no actual evidence in support of a divorce after all.' 'I don't want a divorce,' I said 'I don't require one; I'm going to annul the marriage altogether.' 'As how?' he asked. 'Why,' I said, 'I'm going to file a bill, of course; the thing's as plain as a pike-staff.' He was rather a grave man, but he laughed and coughed a good deal; and when I asked him how much the bill would stand me in, he laughed and coughed more, and begged my pardon. Then I had to tell him about Tommy Carleton's brother and his opinion, whereupon he said 'that Mr Carleton was evidently an impudent pretender or a practical joker. 'It was impossible to prove the marriage void-that was a certainty,' he said; but, judging from the style of the woman, it might probably be easy to obtain evidence that would render a dissolution practicable. Where was the woman now?' I told him I didn't know.

She was in India the last time I heard of her, but my agents in the country remitted £250 half-yearly to a London firm on her account, and her whereabouts was therefore discoverable. The lawyer said I had strangely neglected my interests. In the first place, she might be dead, and some dishonest relative might be personating her, and drawing her annuity; in the second place, if I wanted to get rid of her, it was clearly expedient that a surveillance should be established to note the manner of life she was leading. If I would give him the address of her agent in London, he would get things in train; and if the woman was still in India, he would set a sharp correspondent on her track-a man who would. ferret out anything; while, if she were in Europe, he would easily put her under a vigilant observation. All steps of the sort were taken it transpired that she had been leading a roving restless life-at first in

India, then at different places in Europesometimes taking a theatrical engagement; that she was still given to excessive drinking and to gambling; but she baffled all efforts to obtain the kind of evidence required for my release. There the matter stands at present. The verdict of the lawyer was a terrible blow to Mary, as it was to me. I wrote and told her about it-how the bill could never be filed; but added that there was no reason to despair, as the lawyers were hard at work, had got an idea, and were sanguine that eventually something could be done to release me; at the same time, she must consider herself free from any kind of engagement, more particularly as it appeared to me that we could neither meet nor correspond under existing circumstances. She wrote me back such a jolly letter, saying that, whatever happened, she would always love me the same, and never marry any other fellow, though of