“Is she his wife?”

“No, or the evidence she promises could not be used against him.  Do you know this, Ermine?” as he gave her a cover, with a seal upon it.

“The Saracen! the Saracen’s head, Colin; it was made with the lost seal-ring!”

“The ring was taken from Edward’s dressing-room the night when Rose was frightened with the phosphorus.  Maria declares that she did not suspect the theft, or Maddox’s purpose, till long after she had left her place.  He effected his practices under pretence of attachment to her, and then could not shake her off.  She went abroad with him after the settlement of affairs; but he could not keep out of gambling speculation, and lost everything.  Then he seems to have larked about, obtaining means she knew not how—­as artist, lecturer, and what not—­till the notable F. U. E. E. was started.  Most likely he would have collected the subscriptions and made off with them, if Rachel Curtis had not had just sense enough to trust him with nothing without seeing some result, so that he was forced to set the affair going with Maria at its head, as the only person who could co-operate with him.  They kept themselves ready for a start whenever there should be symptoms of a discovery, but, in the meantime, he gambled away all that he got into his hands, and never gave her enough to feed the children.  Thus she was absolutely driven to force work from them for subsistence; and she is a passionate creature, whom jealousy embittered more and more, so that she became more savage than she knew.  Poor thing!  She has her punishment.  Maddox only came home, yesterday, too late for any train before the mail, and by that time the child was too ill to be moved.  He must have thought it all up with him, and wished to be rid of both, for they quarrelled, and he left her to her misery.”

“What, gone?”

“Yes, but she told us of his haunts—­haunts that he thought she did not know—­a fancy shop, kept by a Mrs. Dench at Bristol, where it seems that he plays the philanthropical lecturer, and probably has been trying to secure a snug berth for himself unknown, as he thought, to Maria; but she pried into his letters, and kept a keen watch upon him.  He was to be inquired for there by his Mauleverer name, and, I have little doubt, will be captured.”

“And then?”

“He will be committed for trial at the sessions; and, in the meantime, I must see Beauchamp and Dr. Long, and arrange that he should be prosecuted for the forgery, even though he should slip through our fingers at the sessions.”

“Oh, could that be?”

“This Clever Woman has managed matters so sweetly, that they might just as well try her as him for obtaining money on false pretences; and the man seems to have been wonderfully sharp in avoiding committing himself.  Mrs. Curtis’s man of business has been trying all day to get up the case, but he has made out nothing but a few more debts such as that which turned up yesterday; and it is very doubtful how far a case can be made out against him.”