y cured, and was as sound
as any woman in the State. I had as much other business too as I could
attend to, and was very busy and happy all the time.

In May I went to Exeter, alternating between there and Portsmouth, and
finding enough to do till the end of July. While I was in Portsmouth
on one of my last visits to that place, I received a call from a
sea-captain by the name of Brown, who told me that he had heard of my
success in dropsical cases, and that I must go to Newark, N. J., and
see his daughter. "Pay," he said, "was no object; I must go." I told him
that I had early finished my business in that vicinity, and that when I
went to New York, as I proposed to do shortly, I would go over to
Newark and see his daughter. A few days afterward, when I had settled my
business and collected my bills in Portsmouth and Exeter, I went to New
York, and from there to Newark.

CHAPTER VII. WEDDING A WIDOW, AND THE CONSEQUENCES.

I MARRY A WIDOW--SIX WEEKS OF HAPPINESS--CONFIDING A SECRET AND THE
CONSEQUENCES--THE WIDOW'S BROTHER--SUDDEN FLIGHT FROM NEWARK--IN
HARTFORD, CONN.--MY WIFE'S SISTER BETRAYS ME--TRIAL FOR
BIGAMY--SENTENCED TO TEN YEARS IMPRISONMENT--I BECOME A "BOBBIN BOY"--A
GOOD FRIEND--GOVERNOR PRICE VISITS ME IN PRISON--HE PARDONS ME--TEN
YEARS' SENTENCE FULFILLED IN SEVEN MONTHS.

Why in the world did Captain Brown ever tempt me with the prospect of
a profitable patient in Newark? I had no thought of going to that city,
and no business there except to see if I could cure Captain Brown's
daughter. With my matrimonial monomania it was like putting my hand into
the fire to go to a fresh place, where I should see fresh faces, and
where fresh temptations would beset me. And when I went to Newark, I
went only as I supposed, to see a single patient; but Captain Brown
prevailed upon me to stay to take care of his daughter, and assured me
that he and his friends would secure me a good practice. They did. In
two months I was doing as well in my profession as I had ever done in
any place where I had located. I might have attended strictly to my
business, and in a few years have acquired a handsome competence. But,
as ill luck, which, strangely enough, I then considered good luck, would
have it, when I had been in Newark some two months, I became acquainted
with a buxom, good-looking widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Roberts. I protest
to-day that she courted me--not I her. She was fair, fascinating, and
had a goodly share