“Your husband has run away from you, then?” I remarked, secretly not at all surprised at his action. “No, not that,” she answered, and it was then that I began to doubt her sanity. “It was not running away. They told me he was dead and buried, and I believed them; but I saw him to-day riding along in a carriage with a grand lady—a new wife, as I suppose—and I want you to hunt him out. I’m not so good as I should be, but I’m still his wife, surely?” “Surely,” I echoed, thinking it best to humour the maniac. “You must know that though I’ve been in jail I’m not a bad woman,” she continued. “If I had been, he’d have divorced me, or at least put me away, for he was too poor to afford lawyer’s fees. He’s only a factory worker like myself.” “How can that be, when you told me just now that you saw him riding in a carriage with a grand lady?” I asked, thinking to catch her up. “That’s the mystery which I can’t understand,” she answered. “You are to find out all about that. I did not see the lady’s face right, as the carriage went by so fast, and I was horrified at seeing him, and could scarcely take my eyes off him; but I know it was Dick Hanford, my husband.” “Some one resembling him in features,” I thought. “What were you put in jail for, pray?” I added aloud. “I was put in once or twice for drink,” she said, hanging her head a little. “He wouldn’t pay the fines, and so I had to suffer. It’s my only failing. I was brought up as a girl behind the bar, and I got to take drink secretly till I couldn’t keep from it. Then I was put away, and went into the factory. It’s down in Leith Walk. I used to be called ‘the Beauty of the Mill,’ and all the men were daft about me.” “Good heavens!” was my mental exclamation; “daft about a creature like this!” “I could have had my choice of a dozen men, but I took Hanford, though his wage was the poorest in the place,” she calmly continued. “I suppose it was because I was daft about him. I’m that yet. I never loved anybody else, and never can.” “You said ‘once or twice for drink’—were you ever in jail for anything else?” I asked, pretty sure that she had kept something back. “Yes, I was in for two years. It’s only about nine months since I got out. It was then they told me he was dead, and I believed them.” “What were you put in for?” She trembled and grew paler, and tears came into her eyes.