George Leroy Livingston was six or eight years ago a fast young man about town. His mother, Mrs. John Fowler, Jr., of New Rochelle, gave him money until it was plain that he was wasting it in dissipation and extravagance, and then she ceased. He was a member of the Seventh Regiment, and of numerous social clubs. His marriage with the daughter of one of Troy’s richest men, Miss Heartt, created much comment at the time from the reason that it was said that he did so solely because she had money. Her friends opposed the match, but she persisted, and they were wedded at a time when he had scarcely a dollar in his pocket. She helped him to pay the clergyman his fee and defrayed the expenses of the bridal tour to Europe. The $60,000 that had been left to her by her mother she put in his hands, and he wasted it. Her father died soon after the wedding, and she was the heir to his $300,000. This Livingston also began to squander, and her friends say that she was often obliged to borrow small sums of money to pay the expenses of the household, so closely did he draw upon her income. The capital he rapidly diminished, yet Mrs. Livingston continued to live in excellent style, keeping up appearances in the family mansion as was the custom in her parents’ lifetime, and spending the summer at places of popular resort at the seaside. Her horses and carriages were driven as usual, and she gave entertainments the same as before.

Livingston made in Troy the acquaintance of Mr. John Gale’s daughter and was particularly attracted by Miss Mary, who, like Livingston’s wife, was heiress to a fortune. She was not a wild girl, but having grown up apart from the restraining influences of a mother, had developed a tendency to flirt, which Livingston very soon discovered. They were very much together and she became infatuated with the dashing young husband of her former friend, Miss Heartt. The intimacy ripened into love, and the tongue of scandal began to fill the town with stories. It was said that he was after Miss Gale’s money that he might squander it as he had his wife’s. For a time Miss Gale continued to visit at Mrs. Livingston’s house, and the two families were on most intimate terms. This gave the gossips yet more cause for comment.

About the middle of April Livingston began to abuse his wife, and Mrs. Livingston made accusations against him which he did not attempt to deny. The trouble was over his attentions to Miss Gale, and he drove his wife, who had heretofore believed that he cared for her, almost crazy by admitting that he loved another. She did not hesitate, but dispatching a servant for Miss Gale, confronted that young woman as she entered the Livingston mansion with the exclamation, “My husband says he loves you!” Miss Gale could only reply that she herself believed he did.

“Then leave my house and leave the town both of you,” was Mrs. Livingston’s exclamation, and she gave her husband money with which to carry out her directions. It is said in Troy that she packed his trunk with her own hands, and then ordered it sent to the depot. Then she went to Mr. Gale’s house and told him all that had been revealed to her. Mr. Gale hurried home to find that his daughter had gone. She had taken the family diamond and wearing apparel and other valuables, and had fled, and, meeting Livingston at the depot, had taken the train for Poughkeepsie. As she was of age she was out of her father’s control. Mr. Gale’s brother, who acted for him, knew of no expedient to force her to return except to have her arrested on charge of stealing the diamonds, and detectives were accordingly employed to arrest her if she would not return to her home voluntarily. Poughkeepsie, however, was overlooked, and it was not until a day or two later, when the runaway pair arrived in the Grand Central depot, that they were arrested.

Miss Gale was compelled to retrace her steps, under threats that the charge of theft should be pressed. Livingston, it is supposed, is still in this city. He was advised not to return to Troy, or he would receive a coat of tar and feathers, and this advice he has apparently followed.

Mrs. Livingston immediately instituted divorce proceedings on the ground of her husband’s adultery. Her petition briefly narrated the circumstances of his intimacy with Miss Gale, his confessions to her. His flight to Poughkeepsie was so known that no defense could be made, and Mrs. Livingston has been declared free from the unfortunate matrimonial alliance. She has already had her cards engraved with her maiden name, Miss Louise Heartt. The custody of her children is awarded to her, and she lives alone in the Troy house. The Gale family have sailed for Europe.