Yes! disappeared as completely as any
vanishing lady in a music-hall. He was wealthy, had a fine house,
servants, a wife and children, and he disappeared. There was no getting
away from that.
"Mr. Francis Morton lived with his wife in one of the large houses in
Sussex Square at the Kemp Town end of Brighton. Mrs. Morton was well
known for her Americanisms, her swagger dinner parties, and beautiful
Paris gowns. She was the daughter of one of the many American
millionaires (I think her father was a Chicago pork-butcher), who
conveniently provide wealthy wives for English gentlemen; and she had
married Mr. Francis Morton a few years ago and brought him her quarter
of a million, for no other reason but that she fell in love with him. He
was neither good-looking nor distinguished, in fact, he was one of those
men who seem to have CITY stamped all over their person.
"He was a gentleman of very regular habits, going up to London every
morning on business and returning every afternoon by the 'husband's
train.' So regular was he in these habits that all the servants at the
Sussex Square house were betrayed into actual gossip over the fact that
on Wednesday, March 17th, the master was not home for dinner. Hales, the
butler, remarked that the mistress seemed a bit anxious and didn't eat
much food.
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