the
certificate of her marriage, with a short note from Ella, saying that
when he could make his mind up to forgive her and her husband, and to
acknowledge that the latter did not deserve the abusive language that he
had applied to him, she should be glad to return and resume her place as
his affectionate and loving daughter. She gave an address at which he
could communicate to her.

Three years passed before Captain Bayley's anger had sufficiently calmed
down for him to write to his daughter saying that he forgave her. The
letter was returned by the people at the house, with a note saying that
many months had elapsed since any inquiries had been made for letters
for Mrs. Smedley, and that they had altogether lost sight of her. Now
that the Captain had once made up his mind to forgive his daughter, he
was burning with impatience to see her again, and he at once employed a
detective to find out what had become of her.

From the person to whose house the letter had been directed the
detective learned the address where she and her husband had resided
while in London.

For a time it seemed they had lived expensively, the sale of Ella's
jewels keeping them in luxury for some months. Then hard times had come
upon them; the man had altogether lost his connection as a teacher, and
could, or would, do nothing to support his wife and himself; they had
moved from the place they had first lived at, and taken much smaller
lodgings.

Here the people of the house reported their life had been very unhappy;
the husband had taken to drink, and there had been fierce and frequent
quarrels between them, arising--the landlady had gleaned, from the loud
and angry utterance of the husband--from the wife's refusal to appeal
to her father for assistance. They had left this place suddenly, and in
debt; thence they had moved from lodging to lodging at short intervals,
their position getting worse, until they were last lodged in a wretched
garret. From this point they were traced with great trouble down to
Nottingham, where the husband obtained a precarious living by producing
designs for embroidery and curtains.

Had he been steady he might have soon done fairly, but a great part of
his time was spent in public-houses, and he was seldom sober. When
returning home one night in a state of drunkenness, he was run over by a
heavy van and killed. As his wife possessed but a few shillings in the
world, he was buried at the expense of the parish an