allow her to accept it, particularly as her little boy was afflicted
with sore eyes, and there was no oculist of ability in the town. Her
husband readily consented, and, with the promise that she would
return in a few weeks, Mrs. Clarkson came to Montreal, and calling
at my house informed Madame Charbonneau (in my absence) that she
wished to remain there if possible, as she was about to be confined.
When I got home she confessed to me that she had been on terms of
intimacy with Randolph Thomson, and begged me not to inform her
husband, as he was exceedingly jealous, and would kill her if he
suspected the true state of affairs.

Promising to do the best I could under the circumstances I had rooms
prepared for both her and her boy, and secured the best medical
attendance for the latter, whose eyes were in a very bad state from
long neglect. It was two weeks before Mrs. Clarkson's baby (a boy)
was born, and very unpleasant rumors were circulated round the town,
which, coming to the ears of the old gentleman caused him to write a
very stiff letter, ordering his wife to return immediately. This, of
course, she could not do, and as she was unable to frame an excuse
for refusing to I do so, she determined to take no notice of his
letter, and, if brought to task concerning it, _to deny having
received it_, the letter being unregistered. Fortunately for her, if
not for himself, her boy's eyes continued to defy the skill of
Dr. Fulford, the oculist to whose care she had committed him, and it
was imperative that they should remain in Montreal a week or two
longer. This fact was communicated to Mr. Clarkson, but his sister
(who had continued to reside with him after his marriage) persuaded
him to have nothing more to do with his wife, and related to him the
rumors she had heard, allowing them (as may well be supposed) to
lose nothing in the narration.