“The way in which they came to be kicked out was this. My wife would never bring to me, when smoking after dinner, the glass ashtray, and out of politeness Miss Driggs would rise and do so. My wife said she did not like this, and there were some words between us.
“At this time I was told by young Driggs that my black servant had told his family that my wife had made some unpleasant remarks about them. I spoke to my wife about this. Next day she went to her mother, and when I came home I found her mother and sister sitting with Mrs. Driggs in my house.
“Mrs. Dyer refused to shake hands with me, which annoyed me on account of Mrs. Driggs’s presence. I walked downstairs, and Mrs. Dyer and her daughter followed and even collared me to prevent me, going out.
“I told them to leave my house, and when they would not, directed my black servant to go for the police, which he did not do. I afterward walked out disgusted and returned at ten o’clock, when I found a cab at the door and the Driggses going away.
To Enhance Hit Reputation
“Mrs. Dyer, her daughter and her son John being all in the house, I said: ‘Now you see what you have done.’ They all left with my wife, who returned next day and said she would come back if I behaved myself.
“I said I always did this and that she had better stay away altogether. She went back to her mother’s, but returned in a couple of days as I knew she would. She could not be long at her mother’s without a big fight.
“A complete rupture came about ultimately between me and my wife’s family, and we got on much more smoothly. During the last two years we got on very smoothly.”
Such were the trivial recollections of his dead wife which first occurred to this man under accusation of her murder. And then as he began to realize his position, he saw that to enhance his own reputation he must blacken hers. He did not hesitate to assail her.
“There were some things that occurred greatly to her disadvantage,” he continued, “and as her friends are not likely to spare me, and are likely to say that I was harsh and unkind to her, whereas I am one of the kindest husbands that could be, kind to a degree, I am compelled to quote facts in support of my statement. When I say I was kind, I mean by that, forbearing and not resenting malice.”
Let us see wherein his kindness consisted.
Chantrelle Snoops
“About three years ago, when we were on the very best of terms, I discovered my wife was carrying on an intrigue with a young man living in the same house. I made a noise about it.”
He discovered what he called an intrigue in this way, as he tells. His wife accused him of kissing a servant, and though he called in the servant and got her to say it was untrue, his wife eventually dismissed the servant.
“She came back next day with an aunt and they were asking me at the door why she had been put away, when my wife, who had been listening, came up and made some remark.
“The servant said: ‘You take men into the house when your husband is out? I do not remember what my wife said, but I said to the servant girclass="underline" ‘Who is it?’ She replied: ‘Mr. So and So,’ naming a person downstairs.
“I went there and rang the bell, and fetched the party. I asked him in the presence of all if he had ever been in my house. He said he had, and made some excuse about bringing up the letters.
“I asked him if he was the postman — he said he was not. He said he had been in once or twice. I then said that will do, and he walked downstairs. The aunt and the servant then left. I then called on a lawyer, and he said if there was nothing serious I should be satisfied with an apology.
“I wrote to the young man for this, and got it. I did not entirely believe that there had been anything improper” — he had found out that his wife had spoken to the young man at the door about a dozen times — “between the young man and my wife, but I strongly suspected it because he avoided speaking to me or making my acquaintance.”
Once upon the scent of something which he may hold as a weapon over his wife’s head he keeps up the hunt. Listen to this man who assuredly was no admirer of the motto — Noblesse oblige.
“Suspecting there might be something more, I made an appointment with the said servant girl, and asked her if she knew anything more. She replied my wife had mentioned a young man whom she used to walk with before and meet at her mother’s. He had given my wife a beautiful scent bottle and she had given him a cigar case, bought at a Miss Cooper’s shop.”
Such evidence might be suspect, coming from a servant girl who has been dismissed, but Chantrelle, his nose to the ground, follows the trail to Miss Cooper’s shop.
“ ‘By the way,’ I said, ‘my wife gave me a very pretty cigar case last Christmas.’ The shopwoman said — she knew me: ‘Yes, I sold it to your wife myself?’ ”
The Judas Kiss
Chantrelle bought a duplicate of this cigar case and went home. He asked his wife if she had anything to tell him before going to her mother’s. She declared she had nothing to tell him, and they both went to Mrs. Dyer’s.
There Chantrelle asked Elizabeth, in her mother’s presence, if she had anything more to declare, and she said she had not. He told her the dismissed servant said she had given a cigar case to a young man and she denied this.
“I then asked her if she would swear on a Bible before God that she had never done so and she said she would. I then kissed her and we were all rejoicing together when I took the duplicate cigar case out of my pocket and showing it to them, asked my wife if she had never bought one like it.
“She denied having done so even after I had told her where I had bought it. She still denied it. She behaved like a panther and abused me by calling me a villain, a sneak, thief and scoundrel. Her mother then behaved like a thorough going liar. I asked her to go with me to the shop, but she would not, and said she did not believe me.
“I then walked home and shortly afterward my wife came home and abused me, and said she would go to London if I would only give the fare. I then said I would behave to her like a father if she would tell me all that happened and see if I could again forgive her.”
Chantrelle who blandly confesses to having given his wife a Judas kiss of reconciliation just before he springs the cigar case upon her, now goes to lower depths.
The Trial Comes Up
He has learned that his wife and this young man, youthful friends of old standing, have apparently exchanged gifts. That is all he has to go upon in the matter, and. even his wife denies that. Now he would have us believe that his wife confesses to adultery without one iota of evidence against her.
“She took a deal of persuasion and at length confessed to repeated adulterous intercourse with a certain young man, being the young man to whom she had given the cigar case, which she admitted having done. On her confession I forgave her and made it all up.”
The young man had assailed his honor, the honor of a husband who himself was a frequenter of brothels, and he must be made to pay. He is a bank clerk.
Chantrelle goes to him and says he will charge him with an offense which will destroy his character, he will do so openly in front of the manager and directors. The young man defies him to do his worst, he has nothing to be ashamed of, but overnight reflection makes him change his mind.
Like the other victims of blackmail he knows that whether innocent or not an accusation is going to make trouble for him, and weakly he pays Chantrelle fifty pounds and writes him an apology.