betted extensively on the turf, kept open house, and finally became
entangled with a lady whose looks were much better than her morals,
and whose capacity for spending money so far exceeded his own that
in two years she completely ruined him. Mrs Villiers put up with
this conduct for some time, as she was too proud to acknowledge she
had made a mistake in her choice of a husband; but when Villiers,
after spending all her wealth in riotous living, actually proceeded
to ill-treat her in order to force her to give up the money her
father had settled on her, she rebelled. She tore off her wedding-
ring, threw it at his feet, renounced his name, and went off to
Ballarat with her old nurse and the remnants of her fortune.

Mr Villiers, however, was not displeased at this step; in fact, he
was rather glad to get rid of a wife who could no longer supply him
with money, and whose presence was a constant rebuke. He sold up the
house and furniture, and converted all available property into cash,
which cash he then converted into drink for himself and jewellery
for his lady friend. The end soon came to the fresh supply of money,
and his lady friend went off with his dearest companion, to whose
purse she had taken a sudden liking. Villiers, deserted by all his
acquaintances, sank lower and lower in the social scale, and the
once brilliant butterfly of fashion became a billiard marker, then a
tout at races, and finally a bar loafer with no visible means of
support.

Meantime Mrs Villiers was prospering in Ballarat, and gaining the
respect and good opinion of everyone, while her husband was earning
the contempt of not only his former friends but even of the
creatures with whom he now associated. When Mrs Villiers went up to
Ballarat after her short but brilliant life in Melbourne she felt