A Reconstructed Marriage   By: Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr (1831-1919)

by

AMELIA E. BARR

Frontispiece by Z. P. Nikolaki

New York Dodd, Mead and Company 1910

Copyright, 1910, by Dodd, Mead and Company

Published, October, 1910

The Quinn & Boden Co. Press Rahway, N.J.

TO MY DEAR FRIEND MRS. HARRY LEE THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

CONTENTS

I A PROSPECTIVE MOTHER IN LAW

II PREPARING FOR THE BRIDE

III THE BRIDE'S HOMECOMING

IV FOES IN THE HOUSEHOLD

V BAD AT BEST

VI THE NAMING OF THE CHILD

VII THE NEW CHRISTINA

VIII A RUNAWAY BRIDE

IX THE LAST STRAW

X THEODORA MAKES A NEW LIFE

XI CHRISTINA AND ISABEL

XII ROBERT CAMPBELL GOES WOOING

XIII THE RECONSTRUCTED MARRIAGE

A RECONSTRUCTED MARRIAGE

CHAPTER I

A PROSPECTIVE MOTHER IN LAW

As it was Saturday morning, Mrs. Traquair Campbell was examining her weekly accounts and clearing off her week's correspondence; for she found it necessary to her enjoyment of the Sabbath Day that her mind should be free from all worldly obligations. This was one of the inviolable laws of Traquair House, enunciated so frequently and so positively by its mistress, that it was seldom violated in any way.

It was therefore with fear and uncertainty that Miss Campbell ventured to break this rule, and to open softly the door of her mother's room. No notice was taken of the intruder for a few moments, but her presence proving disastrous to the total of a line of figures which Mrs. Campbell was adding, she looked up with visible annoyance and asked:

"What do you want, Isabel? You are disturbing me very much, and you know it."

"I beg pardon, mother, but I think the occasion will excuse me."

"What is the occasion?"

"There is something in my brother's room that I feel sure you ought to see."

"Could you not have waited until I had finished my work here?"

"No, mother. It is Saturday, and Robert may be home by an early train. I think he will, for he is apparently going to England."

"Going to England, so near the Sabbath? Impossible! What set your thoughts on that track?"

"His valise is packed, and directed to Sheffield; but I think he will stop at a town called Kendal. He may go to Sheffield afterwards, of course."

"Kendal! Where is Kendal? I never heard of the place. What do you know about it?"

"Nothing at all. But in going over the mail, I noticed that four letters with the Kendal post office stamp came to Robert this week. They were all addressed in the same handwriting a woman's."

"Isabel Campbell!"

"It is the truth, mother."

"Why did you not name this singular circumstance before?"

"It was not my affair. Robert would likely have been angry at my noticing his letters. I have no right to interfere in his life. You have if it seems best to do so."

"Have you told me all?"

"No, mother."

"What else?"

"There is on his dressing table, loosely folded in tissue paper, an exquisite Bible."

"Very good. Robert cannot have The Word too exquisitely bound."

"I do not think Robert intends this copy of the Word for his own use. No, indeed!"

"Why should you think different?"

"It is bound in purple velvet. The corner pieces are of gold, and a little gold plate on the cover has engraved upon it the word Theodora . Can you imagine Robert Traquair Campbell using a Bible like that? It would be remarked by every one in the church. I am sure of it."

Mrs. Campbell had dropped her pencil and had quite forgotten her accounts and letters. Her hard, handsome face was flushed with anger, her tawny colored eyes full of calculating mischief, as she demanded with scornful passion:

"What is your opinion, Isabel?"