Roland Graeme: Knight. A Novel of Our Time

by Agnes Maule Machar

"Well, I'm afraid nine out of ten men of his temperament would have done the same," replied Miss Spencer. "But, the poor thing was stunned when she realized it all. She had no choice, however, except to do what he directed. She went to live with her aunt in the country village, while her husband, too miserable, probably, to go on with his work, got leave of absence and came for a trip to America.

"A few months later, her child was born; but she was so terrified lest the husband should take the little one from her, that she would not let him be told of its existence. He did not write to her, directly, only sending the remittances to her aunt. And he did not return from America, but resigned his charge in England, and accepted one out here, glad, doubtless, not to be exposed to meet the curious or pitying looks of old acquaintances.

"When her child was a few months old, her aunt died, and her only cousin, a woman some years older than herself, received an invitation to come out here, to take a sort of housekeeper's place with a friend of hers who had settled on a Western farm, and was in bad health. This poor girl, who still loved her husband devotedly, was seized with a great desire to come out with her, thinking that she too, could get a situation, and then she would no longer need his money, which it hurt her to receive, thinking that he could regard her only as a burden. She of the sea, she would see him sometimes, and she would be near him in case he were ill. Unhappily she could not subdue the fatal craving, and she had no hope of her husband's taking her back; indeed, she seems to have believed that his affection for her was utterly dead.

"So she set out, with her cousin and her child, for New York. They had nearly reached land, when a collision occurred at night, and their steamer was so injured that it speedily sank. In the hurry and confusion, Mrs. Travers and her cousin were put into different boats, and the one the cousin was in, was lost. She and her baby were saved, but she lay in a half-unconscious condition for days afterwards, from the fright and exposure. It happened that her cousin and she had accidentally exchanged handkerchiefs, and hers, marked with her name, was found on the body, when it was picked up, next day. And so, in the newspaper accounts of the accident, her name was given in the list of the lost. Her cousin's name was Travers, which had been her own maiden name. When she recovered and saw her own name in the list of the lost passengers, a strange idea took hold of her. She would leave it so, she thought, and if her husband should see the name, he would cease to think of her as a burden, and perhaps come to think more kindly of her, as we generally do of the dead. And she felt that, with a different name, she could make a new beginning in the new land. She went on to the destination for which they were bound, and, having explained the death of her cousin, she was accepted in her place, notwithstanding the drawback of her child. As her cousin's name was Travers, she was naturally called Mrs. Travers, and she encouraged the mistake.

"What was her real name?" asked Nora, very quietly. A strange idea had occurred to her, which she would not entertain, yet could not quite reject.

"I don't know, I can only guess," replied Janet. "Well," she continued, "she seems to have been tolerably comfortable there for three or four years. Her cousin's friend knew her weakness, and was most careful not to let her be exposed to temptation; and when, at times, she did, notwithstanding, go wrong—it was overlooked, partly for her own sake and partly for that of her dead cousin, and also of the little child, whom every one was fond of.

"At last, this good friend died, and then she had to look for a new home, the husband's mother coming to take charge. She kept track of her husband's movements, and, as he had left his first parish for a large city charge, she thought she would try to get a situation somewhere near him, so that she might see him occasionally, taking care to do so unobserved by him. Her old enemy still kept its hold on her; and again and again deprived her of a home. She had been very much embittered against religion, through her husband's throwing her off, for she thought that had something to do with it; and had absolutely nothing to hold by except her affection for her child, for whose sake she would have kept straight, if she could. When she couldn't get a place, she tried to maintain herself by taking in sewing, or by selling her little paintings of flowers on cards, which I suppose people bought more out of charity than anything else, in these days of chromos. She says she doesn't know what she would have done, for some time past, but for poor Lizzie Mason, who was always ready to share with her what little she had."

"And all this time her husband thought her dead! Is he still alive?" asked Nora, in a scarcely audible tone. She had grown very pale.

"Yes, he is alive, and he still thinks her dead."

"And suppose he were to have married again?"