This confession completely established the identity of Laura and she was
publicly acknowledged by Mr. Frederick Fairlie. Laura and I had been
married some time before and we were now able to set off on our
honeymoon. We visited Paris. While there, I chanced to be attracted by a
large crowd that surged round the doors of the Morgue. Forcing my way
through, I saw, lying within, the body of Count Fosco. There was a wound
exactly over his heart, and on his arm were two deep cuts in the shape
of the letter "T"--the symbol of his treason to the secret brotherhood.
When we returned to England, we lived comfortably on the income I was
able to earn by my profession. A son was born to us, and when Frederick
Fairlie died, it was Marion Halcombe, who had been the good angel of our
lives, who announced the important change that had taken place in our
prospects.
"Let me make two eminent personages known to one another," she
exclaimed, with all her easy gaiety of old times, holding out my son to
me: "Mr. Walter Hartright--the heir of Limmeridge House."
* * * * *
HUGH CONWAY
Called Back
Hugh Conway, the English novelist, whose real name was
Frederick John Fargus, was born December 26, 1847, the son of
a Bristol auctioneer. His early ambition was to lead a
seafaring life, and with this object he entered the school
frigate Conway--from which he took his pseudonym--then
stationed on the Mersey. His father was against the project,
with the result that Conway abandoned the idea and entered his
parent's office, where he found ample leisure to employ
himself in writing occasional newspaper articles and tales.
His first published work was a volume of poems, which appeared
in 1879, and achieved a moderate success. But Hugh Conway is
chiefly known to the reading public for his famous story
"Called Black." The work was submitted to a number of
publishers before it was finally accepted and published, in
1884. Attracting little notice at first, it eventually made a
hit, and within five years 350,000 copies were sold. Several
other works appeared from Conway's pen in rapid succession,
but none of them attained the popularity of "Called Back."
Hugh Conway died at Monte Carlo on May 15, 1885.
_I.--A Blind Witness_
I was young, rich, and possessed of unusual vigour and strength. Life,
you would think, should have been very pleasant to me. I was beyond the
reach of care; I was as free as the wind to follow my own devices. But
in spite of all these advantages, I was as helpless and miserable as the
poorest toiler in the country.
For I was blind, stone blind!
The dread disease that robbed me of my sight had crept on me slowly
through the years, and now I lay in my bedroom in Walpole Street, with
my old nurse, Priscilla Drew, sleeping on an extemporised bed outside my
door to tend and care for me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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