Page 291 (1/1)
'"And if she should turn up alive?"
'"Then I shall know that I aue, hold lided out of the house in a cold sweat The only pressure in heaven or earth which could have forced me to renounce Cytherea was now put upon allows
'I sat all that night weaving strategy of various kinds The only effectual re that I could see was a simple one It was to substitute another woman for my wife before the suspicions of that one easily-hoodwinked man extended further
'The only difficulty was to find a practicable substitute
'The one woman at all available for the purpose was a friendless, innocent creature, named Anne Seahom I had known in my youth, and who had for some time been the housekeeper of a lady in London
On account of this lady's sudden death, Anne stood in rather a precarious position, as regarded her future subsistence She was not the best kind of woman for the scheme; but there was no alternative One quality of hers was valuable; she was not a talker I went to London the very next day, called at the Hoxton lodging of my wife (the only place at which she had been known as Mrs Manston), and found that no great difficulties stood in the way of a personation And thus favouring circumstances determined my course I visited Anne Seaway, made love to her, and propounded h until the Sunday before my apprehension
Anne ca, and toldcould be done beyond waiting the issue of events Then the letter came from Raunham For the first time in my life I was half indifferent as to what fate awaited ht once or twice of running away, but could not quite make up my mind At any rate it would be best to bury the body of ht be opened at any tie Miss Aldclyffe (who is united to ht or wish to disclose) came to my house, and alarmed me still more She said that she could tell by Mr Raunha, that he kept back from her a suspicion of ers were in his house even then