MATRIMONIAL ESPIONAGE.
Among the curiosities of my experience I reckon the incidents of thenarrative I am about to relate.
A few years ago, a gentleman of considerable estate, one of the untitlednobility of England, called upon me, and explained that he had reason tosuspect the fidelity of his wife. I did not recognise the force of thesereasons. The facts on which this gloomy, although partial, faith in thelady's impurity or falseness had been raised might, with strict literalaccuracy, he described as "trifles light as air."
This suspicion was, however, not to be wholly disregarded by a stranger,at the first blush of the case. My visitor's station in life, hisintellectual qualifications, and his affection for his wife, appearedlike guarantees that he would not condemn her without cause. He did not,however, assert with confidence that she was guilty. All he had, orprofessed to have, was a doubt. He told me that nothing would give himmore delight than a perfect conviction that he had been under a delusionabout the lady.
Perhaps it would be well to describe somewhat more fully the actors inthis curious little drama. Mr. Percival was the only son of a wealthyand improving land-owner in the county of Sussex. He had, inconsequence, inherited his father's whole landed estate, together with alarge sum of money, and considerable investments in public funds andother reliable securities. His education had been well cared for. Helost his mother when only about fourteen years of age, and his characterhad, it is probable, suffered from want of the chastening influences ofmaternal care. This was, however, the only defect, if it were a defect,in his training. His father had anxiously watched the conduct and thedevelopment of his youth. He had been educated at Eton, where heexcelled in more than one branch of study. At Oxford he took honours. Hewas a superior type of the class known as "country gentlemen." Hishabits were those of a man of culture and a man of fortune.
Mrs. Percival was a lady of good, although comparatively poor, family.Her father rejoiced in the title of an Irish landlord; but the rent-rollof the estate was not very considerable, and it needed dexterousmanagement to keep it from the withering grasp of the Encumbered EstatesCourt. Still, out of their slender resources, Mrs. Percival's parentshad given her a superior education. She could draw, she was a skilfuland a good musician, she was an elegant horse-woman, and otherwiseaccomplished. Her manners were free and natural,--sometimes a littlechild-like or hoydenish. She was a little, and but a little, above theaverage stature of her sex; had a graceful mien, and a sweet face. If Iwere expert in drawing pen-and-ink sketches, after the manner of anovelist, I should describe this lady as an almost perfect woman.
The reader will understand that I have, in this description, anticipatedthe narrative so far as to let him know more of the lady and thegentleman than I could learn within a period of two months.
"You will excuse my candour, sir, I hope; but I fail to see the groundsfor your suspicion of your wife."
"I like your candour. It is reassuring. I may be mistaken. I devoutlypray that I am. You have, I am told, had great experience in suchpainful domestic affairs as that I now trouble you with. It is already asource of much comfort to me that I have consulted you. If you canremove the horrid doubts which oppress me, I shall esteem you mybenefactor; but let me know the truth, whatever that may be."
I again begged him to be a little more precise than he had been indetailing the cause of his suspicions.
"In solemn confidence, I may say that we were at a dinner-party at thehouse of Mr. Tallboyes, in Seymour Place, the week before last, and itwas impossible to avoid noticing her freedom with young Lord Swellingtonand Colonel Foreshore."
"The colonel!" I said; "he is a man of sixty. He has seen much hardservice; and is 'a lion' in every party just now, I have heard. Were notyour wife's attentions the mere courtesies which all true women findpleasure in bestowing upon age and bravery?"
"That might be; but what do you say about her pleasantries with thatconceited and empty-headed young fop, Lord Swellington?"
"These might be the innocent raillery and badinage of the purest woman.Ladies sometimes take a cruel pleasure in trifling with, just tomortify, the fop, in whatever grade of society he may be found."
"I sincerely hope you are right; but, unhappily, these have not been theonly causes of my grief. My wife is too fond of pleasure. We have latelybeen at two public breakfasts,--one given by Lady W----, at Kew; andanother by the Marchioness of L----, at Chiswick."
"That--pardon my suggesting, under the most adverse, and at the sametime rational, estimate of human character--betrays only something oflevity, quite consistent with purity of heart and the strictestrectitude of conduct."
"You are not, I am glad to say, an uncharitable interpreter of humanconduct."
"Indeed I hope not; for although I have seen much wickedness, and a vastdeal of subtle, as well as patent, crime, I have met with many instancesin which unjust suspicions have provoked calamities. But was there anything, and if so what was there, in the conduct of your wife to justifyyour suspicions about her?"
"Well, she flirted with every gentleman present at each party, young andold."
"With every one?"
"Yes, or nearly so."
"This is enough to show the groundlessness of your apprehensions. Mrs.Percival may have been too richly endowed with vivacity, but _my_suspicion is that her freedom arises, in great part, from her consciousguilelessness and her moral self-possession."
"Again I say I _hope_ you may be right, and I wrong."
"Why so emphasise that word _hope_? Have you observed any otherinstances of what you deem your wife's impropriety?"
"Yes," he replied, with a sigh.
"Relate them."
"The other day my wife induced me to take her to the flower-show held inthe gardens of the Botanic Society, Regent's Park."
"She asked you to take her?" I interposed.
"Yes, and I did so. I yield every thing she desires; and why not, as Iam not certain that her affections wander?"
"Quite correct; but did any thing occur there?"
"Perhaps you deem it nothing. She hung on the arm of Colonel Foreshorefor a couple of hours."
"The old Indian colonel?"
"Yes."
"Well, really, I do not see any thing in that. I happened to be at thatshow myself with Mrs. Forrester and a distinguished relative of ours. Iremember that among the flowers were several Oriental plants, which ourflorists have succeeded in naturalising. This is one of the most commonincidents of a flower-show."
"I wish I could look upon these things as you do. A single incident ofthe kind might not have aroused my apprehensions; but so many, and atvarious times furnish a collective evidence impossible to resist."
"How long have you been married?"
"A little more than two years."
"Any family?"
"No."
I was quite convinced, as the reader must be, that there was reallynothing in the conduct of Mrs. Percival to justify the cruel suspicionsof her husband. His employment of me would, I saw, be one of theabsurdest things he could very well do.
Should I allow him to employ me? Ought I to permit myself to be used asa spy upon his wife's movements--being so firmly convinced, as I was, ofher innocence?
The mystery of this jealousy was capable of a simple explanation. Thelady had been endowed by nature with a somewhat mercurial disposition,which her education had done little to check. The very scenes in whichher girlhood had been spent had inspired her with a wild or playfultendency. Nothing in her married life had yet happened to curb orcontrol the innocent gaiety, or it might be waywardness, of herdisposition. Had her union with Mr. Percival been blessed by offspring(of which, it is needless to say, there was yet no ground for despair),it is most probable that at dinner-parties she would have been a lessattractive member, at public breakfasts she would have been less chattyor facetious, at flower-shows a less anxious inquirer.
But should I, or should I not, undertake to confirm or remove the unjusthusband's suspicions
?
Upon this I could not make up my mind. I required time forconsideration. It was arranged that Mr. Percival should see me again inthree days.
During the interval between his first and second visits, I carefullybalanced reasons for and against the engagement, and at length resolvedto accept it. If I did not undertake it, I knew others would, if it wereoffered them. If they took it in hand, I was not at all sure that theywould perform their task with becoming delicacy and consideration. Ithought it not improbable that some rude or vulgar man might beinstructed, and that he might, by starting on his inquiry with aforegone conclusion of the lady's guilt, so interpret what he saw of herfree conduct as to increase her husband's jealousy. On the other hand,if I undertook the affair, I doubted not the result would be avindication of Mrs. Percival in her husband's eyes.
Mr. Percival punctually kept his appointment with me.
He was the first to speak.
"I hope," he said, "you have agreed to assist me?"
"I have."
"Well, I shall feel grateful to you when you have probed thetruth--doubly grateful, if you can prove that my doubts about my wifeare unfounded."
"I expect to earn that double gratitude."
"Be it so," he said, with great emphasis. "It is no drawback on yourprofessional merits, to my mind, that you have already formed an opinionthat my wife is as good as I could wish her, and that I am a jealousfool. I should not like to know that you had condemned _her_beforehand. I am persuaded that you will do your duty faithfully towardsme, and considerately towards her."
I promised him that much.
There was a ball at Almack's the very next day. Mrs. Percival was to bethere, and so was her husband. They would go separately, after themanner of the _ton_--she in her brougham, and he in his cab.
I did not think Almack's a desirable place to begin my inquiries in. Itwould not be easy for me to gain admission into this closest of allassemblies, although I could have encompassed that, as I had before. Ipreferred a stand-point of observation where etiquette was less rigid.
Next week there was to be a grand fancy-dress ball, under a potent bodyof lady patronesses, for the relief of starvation in Whitechapel; andMrs. Percival, acting under the feeble light of conventional charity,thought it her duty to buy a ticket (price one guinea, of which aninfinitessimal portion was netted for the indigent), and to largelypatronise her dressmaker and milliner, in proof of her intense sympathywith the famishing poor.
I attended this ball, and was sickened by its palpable mockery of thedistress it was ostensibly designed to relieve; but I must not get offthe track of my narrative to moralise.
At this ball I saw nothing to justify a suspicion of impropriety on thepart of Mrs. Percival; nor did I at a flower-show which was held in thegrounds of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham; nor at a public breakfastwhich the Marchioness of L---- gave in her grounds at Chiswick. A moreprivate scrutiny of the lady's movements also went to prove her strictlyvirtuous in character.
I now got wearied and half-disgusted with my task, and brought it to anend by reporting to Mr. Percival my absolute conviction of his wife'sinnocence and purity. He received my statement without offering anyopinion upon it, and it was evident that he was not quite satisfied withit. It had, I dare say, weakened his suspicions, but it had notdestroyed them. I was sorry for the imperfect result, but I could do nomore than I had done for his satisfaction.
I often mused and reflected over this curious case. What could havegiven rise to these suspicions in the mind of such a man as Mr.Percival? I set it down to incompatibility of temper. He was a somewhatstudious and retiring man. His wife, although as good a woman as everdrew breath, was a light and somewhat volatile person. In many respects,I argued, this is an incongruous union. I thought I saw inevitablemisery for both husband and wife in the future.
About a year after I had finished my proper business with Mr. and Mrs.Percival, I was waited upon by an eminent London solicitor, who knewnothing of my former engagement, for the purpose of tracing the retreatof that gentleman, who had deserted his wife, and was hiding from allhis friends. My visitor, the private solicitor of Mr. Percival, had notheard from him since or about his flight. It was not supposed that anyviolence had befallen him, although it was hard to say what harm mightbefall him. His physician had advised that he had been suffering fromone of the thousand forms of one of the hundred branches of thatdisorder known by the familiar collective title of insanity. It was amild and harmless type of the disease--a species of melancholia. Thefriends of the unfortunate gentleman were anxious to discover, andperhaps secretly watch over, him; at the worst, place him under gentleand temporary restraint. As he was known to be a man of high andhonourable ambition--very likely to obtain and worthily fill a seat inParliament, unless his prospects were marred--publicity, scandal, orgossip, on the subject of his bereavement, was to be deprecated.
I accepted this engagement, and I thought it desirable to let thesolicitor know of the previous retainer given me by Mr. Percival, sothat he might re-state the facts to the physician, who would therebygain some insight into the secret of the gentleman's misfortune.
We had no clue to Mr. Percival's whereabouts. Certain facts led us toimagine he had not left this country; but I put myself in communicationwith the French and Belgian police, as the best mode of tracing him ifhe had crossed the sea. I had all the provincial papers filed at Peele'sand Deacon's Coffee-houses critically scanned, so that if any harmbefell him I should hear of it. This was a precaution I added to theusual police inquiry through the _Hue and Cry_.
One day I got intelligence through a West-of-England paper that agentleman, answering to the description of Mr. Percival, had been foundwandering along the coast, in a state which indicated mentaldisorganisation. I lost no time in proceeding to the spot, with thedoctor, and with Mrs. Percival, who insisted upon being of the party.
We claimed the poor man, who yielded himself up to our control like aninfant. We brought him to London, and took apartments for him in awestern suburb, so as to be out of the eye of gossips, and near to thatof his physician. It is, perhaps, needless to say that his wife attendedon him mainly with her own hands, and would let none but the rudestoffices be performed by any other person. Carriage rides, gentleexercise, and tonic medicines told beneficially on the patient day byday; so that in a few weeks, under the doctor's advice, arrangementswere made to take him, in his own yacht, to the north of Europe.
The physician explained to me that the secret of his malady wasdisappointed or impatient ambition. He was an only son. He hadinherited, with his father's property, that gentleman's desire toestablish a house. He feared that the curse of sterility had fallen onhim or his wife, and the constant brooding over this thought had curdledjealousy in his heart.
In the north of Europe Mr. Percival's mental health was completelyrestored. On his return to England he called upon me, and thanked mevery sincerely for the part I had played in the narrative I havedescribed--stating that if any thing could exceed the claims I had uponhis gratitude for the attention I had bestowed upon him, it would bethe faithful manner in which I had combated and sought to destroy hisunfounded suspicions of his wife. A better or nobler woman did not, hesaid, exist. She had, he feared, impaired her health by her vigilantattention to him during his illness; and the only grief he now had wasthe apprehension that, being _enceinte_, the change of air, andContinental travel, which had just been recommended for her sake, wouldbe inadequate to restore a vigour and tone to her delicate system. I amhappy, however, in being able to state that these fears have not beenrealised. Mr. and Mrs. Percival, who are among the very happiest peoplein the world (the health of both, in mind and in body, being as nearlyperfect as they can be), have two sons, with the prospect ofcontributing more guarantees against the termination of their pedigreein this generation.
The End.
London: Levey And Robson, Printers, Great New Street,
Fetter Lane.
* * * * *
Typographical Errors Corrected By The Etext Transcriber:
which indeed their was=> which indeed there was {pg 23}
thet investigation=> that investigation {pg 53}
which aliowed him=> which allowed him {pg 65}
a great deal of commissration=> a great deal of commisseration {pg 96}
unpretentious estabment=> unpretentious establishment {pg 111}
legiclature of great britain=> legislature of great britain {pg 125}
from which purported to have been issued=> from which it purported tohave been issued {pg 135}
she would cetainly=> she would certainly {pg 140}
neither of of which=> neither of of which {pg 147}
if dossible=> if possible {pg 153}
these must must be vouched=> these must be vouched {pg 186}
suffer it to to lie=> suffer it to lie {pg 197}
dispute and itigation=> dispute and litigation {pg 210}
he face became as pale=> his face became as pale {pg 236}
begining to the end=> beginning to the end {pg 243}
friends and acquaintance=> friends and acquaintances {pg 267}
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