Then, according to his own account, it occurred to Mr. Blaydon that the chance of his life had come--such a chance as comes but too rarely to an unfortunate man who has acted foolishly, but is anxious to redeem the past--the chance of beginning life over again. He was well aware, he said, that he would be reported as dead, and that was just what he wished for: to be dead to all the world, so that he might have another chance of succeeding in life without being handicapped by his unhappy past.
So Mr. Blaydon's story went on, telling how he had just made a start in this new life of his, when by chance he came upon an English newspaper, referring to the fact that the gentleman who had agreed to contest the Nuttingford division of Nethershire at the by-election had just married the daughter of Mr. Wadhurst of Athalsdean Farm. Then, and only then, did he, the narrator, perceive that he would have acted more wisely if he had written to the lady who believed herself to be his widow, apprising her of the fact of his being alive, and endeavouring to make for himself a name that she might bear without a blush. (Mr. Blaydon was well acquainted, it appeared, with the phraseology of the repentant sinner of the Drury Lane autumn drama.)
"What was my duty when I heard that my wife had gone through the ceremony of marriage with another man?" That was the question which perplexed Mr. Blaydon, as a conscientious man anxious not to diverge a hair's breadth from the line of Duty--strict duty. Well, perhaps some people might blame him; but he confessed that the thought of his dear wife--the girl whom he had wooed and won very little more than a year before--going to another man and living with him believing herself to be his wife, was too much for him. He made up his mind that so shocking a situation could not be allowed to continue, and he had made his way back to her side, only, alas! to be repulsed and turned out of her house with contempt, though the fact that her father had received him with the open arms of a father in welcoming the return of the prodigal, proved that even in these days, etc., etc.
Stripped of all emotional verbiage, Mr. Blaydon's statements simply amounted to a declaration of his intention to apply to the court to make an order to restore to him his conjugal rights in respect of the lady who was incontestably his lawful wife.