Five days from the time of his departure, Manston returned from London
and Liverpool, looking very fatigued and thoughtful. He explained to the
rector and other of his acquaintance that all the inquiries he had
made at his wife’s old lodgings and his own had been totally barren of
results.
But he seemed inclined to push the affair to a clear conclusion now that
he had commenced. After the lapse of another day or two he proceeded to
fulfil his promise to the rector, and advertised for the missing
woman in three of the London papers. The advertisement was a carefully
considered and even attractive effusion, calculated to win the heart,
or at least the understanding, of any woman who had a spark of her own
nature left in her.
There was no answer.
Three days later he repeated the experiment; with the same result as
before.
‘I cannot try any further,’ said Manston speciously to the rector, his
sole auditor throughout the proceedings. ‘Mr. Raunham, I’ll tell you the
truth plainly: I don’t love her; I do love Cytherea, and the whole of
this business of searching for the other woman goes altogether against
me. I hope to God I shall never see her again.’
‘But you will do your duty at least?’ said Mr. Raunham.
‘I have done it,’ said Manston. ‘If ever a man on the face of this earth
has done his duty towards an absent wife, I have towards her--living or
dead--at least,’ he added, correcting himself, ‘since I have lived at
Knapwater. I neglected her before that time--I own that, as I have owned
it before.’
‘I should, if I were you, adopt other means to get tidings of her
if advertising fails, in spite of my feelings,’ said the rector
emphatically. ‘But at any rate, try advertising once more. There’s a
satisfaction in having made any attempt three several times.’
When Manston had left the study, the rector stood looking at the fire
for a considerable length of time, lost in profound reflection. He went
to his private diary, and after many pauses, which he varied only by
dipping his pen, letting it dry, wiping it on his sleeve, and then
dipping it again, he took the following note of events:--
‘January 25.--Mr. Manston has just seen me for the third time on the
subject of his lost wife. There have been these peculiarities attending
the three interviews:--
‘The first. My visitor, whilst expressing by words his great anxiety to
do everything for her recovery, showed plainly by his bearing that he
was convinced he should never see her again.
‘The second. He had left off feigning anxiety to do rightly by his first
wife, and honestly asked after Cytherea’s welfare.
‘The third (and most remarkable). He seemed to have lost all
consistency. Whilst expressing his love for Cytherea (which certainly is
strong) and evincing the usual indifference to the first Mrs. Manston’s
fate, he was unable to conceal the intensity of his eagerness for me to
advise him to _advertise again_ for her.’
A week after the second, the third advertisement was inserted. A
paragraph was attached, which stated that this would be the last time
the announcement would appear.