ead that the _Argentina_ was wrecked, and presumably
every soul on board had perished, she wept very many bitter tears over
her early widowhood.

"Fortunately her father, a very wealthy pork-butcher of Chicago, had
known nothing of his daughter's culpable foolishness. Four years later
he took her to London, where she met Mr. Francis Morton and married him.
She led six or seven years of very happy married life when one day, like
a thunderbolt from a clear, blue sky, she received a typewritten letter,
signed 'Armand de la Tremouille,' full of protestations of undying love,
telling a long and pathetic tale of years of suffering in a foreign
land, whither he had drifted after having been rescued almost
miraculously from the wreck of the _Argentina_, and where he never had
been able to scrape a sufficient amount of money to pay for his passage
home. At last fate had favoured him. He had, after many vicissitudes,
found the whereabouts of his dear wife, and was now ready to forgive all
that was past and take her to his loving arms once again.

"What followed was the usual course of events when there is a blackguard
and a fool of a woman. She was terrorised and did not dare to tell her
husband for some time; she corresponded with the Comte de la Tremouille,
begging him for her sake and in memory of the past not to attempt to see
her. She found him amenable to reason in the shape of several hundred
pounds which passed through the Brighton post office into his hands. At
last one day, by accident, Mr. Morton came across one of the Comte de la
Tremouille's interesting letters. She confessed everything, throwing
herself upon her husband's mercy.

"Now, Mr. Francis Morton was a business man, who viewed life practically
and soberly. He liked his wife, who kept him in luxury, and wished to
keep her, whereas the Comte de la Tremouille seemed willing enough to
give her up for a consideration. Mrs. Morton, who had the sole and
absolute control of her fortune, on the other hand, was willing enough
to pay the price and hush up the scandal, which she believed--since she
was a bit of a fool--would land her in prison for bigamy. Mr. Francis
Morton wrote to the Comte de la Tremouille that his wife was ready to
pay him the sum of L10,000 which he demanded in payment for her absolute
liberty and his own complete disappearance out of her life now and for
ever. The appointment was made, and Mr. Morton left his house at 9 a.m.
on March 17th with t