The Argosy, Vol. 50

This October 1890 issue of The Argos features Chapter XXVI of "The House of Halliwell" by Mrs. Henry Wood, author of East Lynne. Emma Halliwell, a clergyman's daughter, confesses to her aunt Hester that she secretly married Edgar Lipscome, a music teacher, two months prior at the Registrar's office in Chelsbro'. Initially married only by civil register, the revelation causes distress within the family. Emma justifies the clandestine marriage as escape from genteel poverty and her position's constraints; her father questions systemic failures in clerical compensation. Her husband, whom family interviews, appears penitent. Mr. Halliwell decides to remarry them ecclesiastically before Emma departs with her husband. The scandal ripples through local society when Miss Dewisson learns the details.