r of
his second wife; he is ruined in health and in pocket, and has come to the
woman he wronged to beg forgiveness; he knows she has learnt to love
Captain Grey, but will not marry him, because she believes that once
married always married. There is only one thing he can do to repair the
wrong he has done--he will commit suicide, and so enable her to marry the
man she loves. He tells her that he has bought the pistol to do it with,
and the words, 'Not here! not here!' escape from her; and he answers, 'No,
not here, but in a cab. I've got one at the door.' He goes out; Captain
Grey enters, and Mrs. Holmes begs him to save her husband. While they are
discussing how this is to be done, he re-enters, saying that his conscience
smote him as he was going to pull the trigger. Will she forgive him? If she
won't, he must make an end of himself. She says she will.

In the third act Hubert had attempted to paint Mr. Holmes' vain efforts to
reform his life. But the constant presence of Captain Grey in the
household, his attempts to win Mrs. Holmes from her husband, and the
drunken husband's amours with the servant-maid disgusted rather than
horrified. In the fourth act the wretched husband admits that his
reformation is impossible, and that, although he has no courage to commit
suicide and set his wife free, he will return to his evil courses; they
will sooner or later make an end of him. The slowness and deadly gravity
with which Ford took this scene rendered it intolerable; and,
notwithstanding the beauty of the conclusion, when the deserted wife, in
the silence of her drawing-room, reads again Captain Grey's letter, telling
her that he has left England for ever, and with another, the success of the
play was left in doubt, and the audience filed out, talking, chattering,
arguing, wondering what the public verdict would be.

To avoid commiseration of heartless friends and the triumphant glances of
literary enemies, Hubert passed through the door leading on to the stage.
Scene-shifters were brutally pushing away what remained of his play; and
the presence of Hamilton Brown, the dramatic author, talking to Ford, was
at that moment particularly disagreeable. On catching sight of Hubert,
Brown ran to him, shook him by the hand, and murmured some discreet
congratulations. He preferred the piece, however, as it had been originally
written, and suggested to Ford the advisability of returning to the first
text. Then Ford went upstairs to