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The Absent Husband (Upon quitting his house)

"Upon quitting his house and family in the manner I have mentioned, Mrs. Howe at first imagined, as she could not conceive any other cause for such an abrupt elopement, that he had contracted a large debt unknown to her, and by that means involved himself in difficulties which he could not easily surmount; and for some days she lived in continual apprehension of demands from creditors, or seizures, executions, &c. But nothing of this kind happened; on the contrary, he did not only leave his estate free and unencumbered, but he paid the bills of every tradesman with whom he had any dealings; and upon examining his papers, in due time after he was gone, proper receipts and discharges were found from all persons, whether tradesmen or others, with whom he had any manner of transactions or money concerns.

Mrs.

Howe, after the death of her children, thought proper to lessen her establishment of servants, and the expenses of her housekeeping: and therefore removed from her house in Jermvn-street, to a little house in Brewer-street, near Goldensquare. Just over-against her lived one Salt, a corn-chandler. About ten years after Howe's abdication, he contrived to form an acquaintance with Salt, and was at length in such a degree of intimacy with him, that he usually dined with Salt once or twice a week. From the room in which they sat, it was not difficult to look into Mrs. Howe's dining-room, where she generally ate, and received her company; and Salt, who believed Howe to be a bachelor, frequently recommended Mrs. Howe as a suitable match. During the last seven years of this gentleman's absence, he went every Sunday to St. James's church, and used to sit in Mr. Salt's seat, where he had a view of his wife, but could not be easily seen by her. After he returned home, he never would confess, even to his most intimate friends, what was the real cause of such a singular conduct: apparently there was none; but whatever there was, he was certainly ashamed to own it. "Dr. Rose has often said to me, that he believed his brother Howe would never have returned to his wife, if the money which he took with him, which was supposed to have been £1000 or £2000, had not been all spent: indeed, he must have been a good economist, and frugal in his manner of living, otherwise his money would scarcely have held out; for I imagine he had his whole fortune by him; I mean what he carried away with him in money and bank-bills: and he daily took out of his bag, like the Spaniard in Gil Blas, what was sufficient for his expenses." * And yet I have seen him, after his return, addressing his wife in the language of a young bridegroom. And I have been assured, by some of his most intimate friends, that he treated her, during the rest of their lives, with the greatest kindness and affection.

A CURIOUS HISTORICAL FACr.-During the troubles in the reign of Charles I. a country girl came to London, in search of a place as a servant maid; but not succeeding, she hired herself to carry out beer from a brewhouse, and was one of those called tub-women. The brewer, observing a good looking girl in this low occupation, took her into his family as a servant, and, after a short time, married her; but he died while she was yet a young woman, and left her the bulk of his fortune. The business of the brewery was dropped, and the young widow was recommended to Mr. Hyde, as a skilful lawyer to arrange her husband's affairs. Hyde, (who was after wards the great Earl of Clarendon,) finding her fortune con siderable , married her. Of this marriage there was no other issue than a daughter, who was afterwards the wife of James II ., and mother of Mary and Anne, queens of England.

The following is said to be THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY FACT ON RECORD.-In the appendix to the Rev. John Campbell's Travels in South Africa, is recorded one of the strangest occurrences in the moral annals of mankind. It will be recollected, that some years ago the Grosvenor, East India man, was wrecked off the coast of Caffraria, (a district divided from the country of the Hottentots by the Great Fish River,) and that nearly the whole of the passengers and crew perished on the occasion.

It was, however, discovered, that two young ladies had survived the miseries of this dreadful event, and were resident in the interior of a country uninhabited by Europeans. Mr. Campbell does not relate this occurrence from personal evidence, but we cannot doubt the extraordinary fact.