"It
means the assumption of a name which is not your own, a most
discreditable device, one to which actresses and women to whose
occupation I can only allude, uniformly resort. How thankful we ought
to be that our respected Rector's eyes must now be opened and that he
has escaped the snare! It was impossible that he could be permanently
attracted by vice and vulgarity. It is singular how much more acute a
woman's perception often is than a man's. I saw through this creature
at once."
Eighteen months passed. The doctor one day was unpacking a book he had
bought at Peterborough. Inside the brown paper was a copy of the
Stamford Mercury, a journal which had a wide circulation in the
Midlands. He generally read it, but he must have omitted to see this
number. His eye fell on the following announcement--"On the 24th June
last, Richard Leighton, aged 44 years." The notice was late, for the
date of the paper was the 18th November. The next afternoon he was in
London. He had been to Great Ormond Street before and had inquired for
Mrs.
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