Knots Untied; Or, Ways and By-ways in the Hidden Life of American DetectivesMcWatters, George S.
General
Knots Untied; Or, Ways and By-ways in the Hidden Life of American Detectives
McWatters, George S.
Detectives
Harland agreed to leave New York forever if proceedings were not taken
against him; and having money enough (obtained, though, by gambling and
forgeries), the officers thought it no wrong to make him pay pretty
liberally for the trouble he had made; and Mr. Daniels, having Hattie's
good at heart, was not easy with him in his demands, but secured
enough, so that Mr. Brown could afford to do a great deal for her; for,
at different times, Mr. Daniels put sums of money into Mr. Brown's
hands to buy this or that for Hattie, letting her suppose that it all
came from Brown's generosity; and it should be added, that the latter
_was_ generous to her also, for he always added to the sums given him,
and purchased better things than directed for her, as a sort of
quietus, it is supposed, to his wounded conscience, in believing that
she was guilty. Harland decamped; but he came back at last, and carried
Charlotte Keeney off with him somewhere as his wife,--which was the
strangest part of the story. She had loved him before Hattie came, and
he had probably loved her, but Hattie's great beauty had attracted him
from her; that is, his affection,--for he had always taken Charlotte
along with Hattie to theatres and elsewhere. The fact is, there was a
jealousy of Hattie in Charlotte's heart, so great, that though she
loved her cousin, it seemed that she was almost sorry that she proved
innocent at last; and she felt Harland's absence, notwithstanding his
villany, greatly. The heart of a woman will cling to her lover or
husband in crime or obloquy, almost as strongly as the heart of a
loving man will cling to, and protect, the woman he really loves, doing
deeds of crime at her will, and, in fact, wrecking fortune, and health,
and life at her behest. It is common to declare the constancy of woman
greater than that of man; but that is a false notion, cherished only by
the inexperienced in human nature's laws. Charlotte found pardon in her
own heart for Harland; and if she did not invent sensible excuses for
his conduct, was not wanting in the number of them. She married, and
was heard from afterwards as living happily with him somewhere.
[Illustration: RESTELL AT SING SING.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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