Mrs. Bob. A rambling story

Front matter

MRS. BOB MES. BOB. H iRamblfng Storg. BY JOHN STRANGE WINTER, AUTHOR OP "Bootles' Baby," "Army Society," "Garrison Gossip," "A Sieoe Baby," "Beautiful Jim," "Mignon's Husband," "My Poor Dick," "A Little Fool," "Buttons," etc., etc. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOLUME II. LONDON: F. V. WHITE & CO., 3J, SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND, W.C. 1889. printed by kelly and co., gate street, lincoln's inn fields. london, w.o. and middle mill, kingston-on-thames. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. — Unbidden Visitors ..... 1 II. — Home Again . . . . . 16 III. — A Little Cloud 27 IV.— " Supposing " .... 40 V. — Half Explained — Wholly Puzzled . 51 VI.— Daily Life . . . . . 66 VII. — A Business-Secret ..... 88 VIII. — A Bundle of Nerves . . . 105 IX. — What Warner Heard . . . .119 X.— Frank! 134 XL— The Truth at Last . . . .152 XII.— "Well?" 171 XIII. — A Brave Front to the World . . 183 XIV.— Exile!

MRS. BOB POPULAR NEW NOVELS. Now Ready, in One Vol., the Eighth Edition of ARMY SOCIETY ; or, Life in a Garrison Town. By JOHN STRANGE Winter. Author of "Booties' Baby." Cloth gilt, es. ; al90 picture boards, 2s. Also, now Ready, in Cloth Gilt, 2s. Gd. each. GARRISON GOSSIP, Gathered in Blankhampton. By JOHN STRANGE Winter. Also picture boards, 2*. A SIEGE BABY. By'the same AUTHOR. Also picture boards 2s. BEAUTIFUL JIM. By the same Author. BY WOMAN'S WIT. By Mrs. Alexander, Author of "The Wooing O't." Also picture boards, 2*. MONA'S CHOICE. By the same AUTHOR. A LIFE INTEREST. By the same Author. KILLED IN THE OPEN. By Mrs. EDWARD KENNARD. Also picture beards, 2s. THE GIRL IN THE BROWN HABIT. A Sporting Novel. By the same Author. Also picture boards, 2s. A REAL GOOD THING. By the same AUTHOR.

Also picture boards, 2s. A CBACK COUNTY. By the same AUTHOR. STRAIGHT AS A DIE. By the same AUTHOR. Also picture boards, 25. OUR FRIENDS IN THE HUNTING FIELD. By the same AUTHOR. TWILIGHT TALES. By the same AUTHOR. Illustrated. IN A GBASS COUNTRY. By Mrs. H. LOVETT-CAMERON. Also picture boards, 2s. A DEVOUT LOVER. By the same AUTHOR. Also picture boards, 2s. THE COST OF A LIE. By the same AUTHOR. THIS WICKED WORLD. By the same AUTHOR. THE OUTSIDER. By HAWLEY SMART. Also picture boards, 2s. THE MASTER OF RATHKELLY. By the same AUTHOR. SHE CAME BETWEEN. By Mrs. ALEXANDER FRASER. DAUGHTERS OF BELGRAVIA. By the same AUTHOR. THE CRUSADE OF THE " EXCELSIOR." By BRET HARTE. Also picture boards, 2s. CURB AND SNAFFLE. By Sir Randal H. Roberts, Bart. DREAM FACES. By the HONBLE. MRS. FETHERSTONHAUGH.

Chapter I. Unbidden Visitors

" A poor man, though living in the crowded mart, no one will notice ; a rich man, though dwelling amid the remote hills, his distant relatives will visit." — Chinese Proverb. In due time Julia Trafford's wedding came off and was pronounced by connoissieurs in that kind of function to be the prettiest wedding that had been sean in Blankhampton for a long time. To Mrs. Trafford it was a par ticularly joyous occasion although she cried a little during the ceremony. She knew that it was probably the last time that they would all appear together in public in the old city. There was Lady Staunton in a delicate mauve and white gown, looking ver}T happy and VOL. II. MUS. BOB. proud of her handsome husband. And there was Madge Orford, proud in the possession of a small pink and white heir to the old name, Madge herself looking delicate and evidently an object of much care to Marcus whose brave grey eyes never wandered very far away from his wife's charming face.

No wonder as the crowded congregation saw the little widow and her family, that they said in their hearts or whispered in each other's ears that she was a wonderful little woman, as clever as she was high. Then there was a smart breakfast in St. Eve's afterwards and an afternoon reception to see the bride and groom leave and to view the wedding presents. Julia went away almost smothered in rich furs amid universal good wishes, and then the company turned their attention to the presents. Such an array, filtering down in costliness from the beautiful diamond jewelry given by the groom, the Markhams and the Ceesprings, the silver plate given by the Marcus Or fords, the Stauntons, the Lucifers and a host of other people, to the piece of needle-work which was the gift of Elizabeth Damerel, the china placpae given by dear Lady Margaret Adair and the olive-wood box which came from the Mornington-Browns.

Mrs. Fairlie's little offerin" took the form of a Pompadour stick of white wood with a huge ivory knob on top held in place by a circle of gold on which was graven Julia's married initials and the date of her wedding day. " It's a sweet thing," said Julia holding it out and looking at it doubtfully, when she had unfolded the many wrappings of tissue paper in which it was enveloped — " but — but isn't it a little tall for me ? " Laura Staunton went off into a gay fit of laughter. "My dear child," ,she cried — "the thing is nearly as tall as yourself. You never can carry it out — you will have a mob after you to a certainty if you do. Remember that you are a little thing and have not the advantage of Mrs. Fairlie's height — Hey, what do you say ? " " Nobody calls her Mrs. Fairlie now," es- 16* MRS. BOB. claimed Julia holding the long white wand at arm's length — " except to her face, that is.

She has budded into 'The Blankhampton Lily.:" " Lor ! " cried Lady Staunton. " Well, then I'll tell you what I should do with the Lily's white Pompadour if I were you. I should just wait till I got my house and then I should give it a special niche in your own boudoir. You are sure to have a white and yellow boudoir and if you stand the Pomp' up against the new fashioned white wood chimney-shelf, it will look lovely. But walk out with it you can't and that is a certainty." "Not with me," put in Stephen at this moment. So Mrs. Stephen Howard did not take the Pompadour stick away on her honey-moon and it remained among the other presents for Blankhampton society to look over and comment upon. Mrs. Lovelace and her Major had sent a pretty little brooch with a jewelled fly re posing on it, and Mrs. Lovelace had looked one of the prettiest woman present at the ceremony.

But she looked ill, everybody noticed that and more than one person was heard to say that really she seemed to have taken the loss of her jewelry very badly. All the same there were one or two who guessed that there was another and a very different reason than the loss of her jewels which was at the bottom of Mrs. Lovelace's altered looks and graver smiles. Pamela Win stanley, for instance, with her own head held higher in air than she had ever held it in all her life before, which is saying a good deal, knew well enough what was in the heart of her rival — her rival, good Heavens, she meant her sister, for did not she and Mrs. Lovelace stand on the same battle-field and had not Captain Legard loved or pretended that he loved and then ridden away alike from them both. More than once Pamela's pale eyes had met Mrs. Lovelace's great black ones, and not wishing to seem to be watching her, she had turned her head away quickly and with a AIRS.

BOB. 6 gesture which seemed to the other to be one of triumph. Ah, if only she had known about that little incident in Mrs. Trafford's drawing-room, when the star of Pamela Win stanley had paled before the sun of Florence Doughty ! Well, the excitement attending Julia Traf ford's wedding passed away and the robbery of Mrs. Lovelace's jewels ceased to be talked about, was indeed well nigh forgotten, and then the Trafford household began to thin — the Stauntons went off to Town for a few days before paying their visit to the old ladies, and Marcus Orford and his wife went back to the regiment, having only had a few days' leave for the purpose of attending Julia's wedding. So Mrs. Trafford was left quite alone and she declared that she felt quite glad to be quiet and live for herself after the excitement and worry of the past two years.

" Dull, my dear," she said to Mina de Lisle who came to commiserate with her on her lonely state — " no, I am never dull — I have always plenty to do and my friends are very kind. But really I am only now beginning to breathe again. Two engagements going on in the house together are bad enough but an engagement of only a month in length is a matter of cruelty to everybody concerned." "Are you going to remain in Blank hampton, Mrs. Trafford,'; Mina asked. " I hope you are. Everybody will miss you dreadfully if you leave it." " I shall not leave for the present, my dear," Mrs. Trafford replied. " You see I have this house on my hands till next October and I know so many people here that I do not think of leaving before next Autumn." " I hope you won't leave it then," cried Mina." Mrs. Trafford laughed—" Oh ! my dear, you may have left it yourself long before next October."

" Yes, that is so — but then I may not," answered Mina with a blush that was a little juvenile for her years. " Well, we shall see," said Mrs. Trafford. " One never quite knows how to look forward MRS. BOB. when there are daughters to take into con sideration. Really if anybody had told me three months ago that I should be here alone in my house to-day and Julia wooed and married and all, I should have taken the liberty of saying that I thought they would prove themselves wrong. And yet Julia is married and here I am all by myself." But Mrs. Trafford did not find herself left very much alone. Her friends came to see her duly and truly and especially did the young ladies get into the habit of going in at all times — just to cheer dear Mrs. Trafford up, they said. And before long the young men also got into a habit of going in to have a cup of tea with her, and while Marcus Orford and Sir Anthony were in Blankhampton they naturally went and called on the incoming regiment which had relieved the 32nd and equally naturally they took several of the officers to call at No. 7, and very soon it became one of the popular houses in the town among the officers of the 43rd (Princess Mary's Own) Hussars.

About this time the Bob Markhams went up to Town for a few days, but when they got back to Brentwood, Mrs. Bob drove over and insisted upon taking Mrs. Trafford back for a day or two. She tried hard to get out of it but Mrs. Bob would not hear a word about that — they were going to have an impromptu dinner party the next evening, the Lucifers and some people who were staying there and one or two others. It was no use Mrs. Trafford declaring that she really wanted rest and quiet more than anything else, Mrs. Bob meant her to go and said so, she would not take no for an answer and simply said she should not leave the house alone. So Mrs. Trafford had no choice but to get her things put together and submit to the inevitable, and I must admit that she enjoyed herself very much when she got there.

And whilst she was there, the neighbourhood was again thrown into a kind of convulsion by the news that another great robbery of jewels had been committed ! Little Mrs. Bob was eloquent about it. MRS. BOB. " Oh ! Mrs. Trafford," she cried—" I do get so frightened by all this. I really almost wish that we had never come into this neighbourhood at all. Yes, I do really. I know I shall never know a moment's peace when we get to the Manor Lodge, and of course, if you visit much you must have silver and so on. You can make a very good show with just as many diamonds as you can carry about your person — but you can't carry your dishes and your spoons and forks about with you, can you?" " Well, not very comfortably," said Mrs. Trafford, with a laugh. " But, if you are so frightened you can buy electro-plate instead of silver — nobody will want to steal that."

Mrs. Bob looked doubtful. " Bob wouldn't like that, I'm sure," she said. " He is so odd about those things. ' If you can't have real things, don't have them at all,' he always says, and I believe he'd rather eat with his fingers than use what he calls sham things. Yes, I know it's very silly, but men who have roughed it a good deal are like that. Bob really hates display of any kind but he does like to have what he has good." " But the gang have cleared you fairly well out," cried Mrs. Trafford — " and surely, after getting all those thousands of pounds' worth of jewels out of you, they would never have the heart to come back for your spoons and forks." " I don't know," Mrs. Bob answered — " Thieves are queer sort of people, you know. They don't stop to think whether the women who own the jewels they steal will mind the loss of them.

They just look upon the possessor of jewels as a sort of gold mine which they may as well help themselves to as not. If they stopped to think, they would never do it and I should still have all the pretty things that Bob has bought me from time to time since we were married. All the same I do owe this gang something. They gave me back my locket and, after all, I set more store by that than I do by all the rest." " I think they will let you off any further MRS. BOB. toll," said Mrs. Trafford— " they will never have the conscience to come your way again." " I hope not," said Mrs. Bob simply — " but I never feel very safe. What I have left is quite worth coming back for. However," — she went on — " Bob is making arrangements to have a strong-room put in the house before we go to Manor Lodge, and then, as he says, we shall lock everything up the first week or two and after awhile we shall get careless and forget and then one fine morning we shall come down and find everything gone."

" I am sure I hope not," said Mrs. Trafford — " but in any case, whatever happens, you are fully prepared for the worst." The new outrage had been perpetrated on the house of a very rich lady living about four miles from Blankhampton. This lady had been bidden to dine at the house of her married sister two or three miles away and in accordance with her general custom on such occasions she had taken her butler and her footman with her to help to wait at table. And during their absence, while the rest of the servants were at supper, the gang had got in and had made a careful and clean sweep of everything, after which they coolly went along to the Palace of the great spiritual lord of the diocese where they effected an entrance and helped themselves to such of the episcopal plate as they found adorning the great carved-oak sideboards and buffets in the Palace dining-room.

After this it is safe to say that the neighbourhood went mad with anger and fear, and the trade in thief-proof and fire-proof safes was so brisk that the makers had hard work to get them set in their places as fast as they were ordered. In the town itself the excitement was fast and furious, the teaspoons disappeared again and the strings of pearls and the paste ornaments, and every evening about the hours of ten to twelve, you might hear such a rattling of chains and shooting of bolts, such a barring of windows and jingling of bells, that you might have imagined yourself in a prison for state criminals or in an asylum for dangerous lunatics. But, though half the MRS. BOB. detectives in Scotland Yard seemed to make their appearance at one time or other, ask questions, look wise or prowl round and neither ask questions nor look anything one way or the other, there was not a trace to be found of the missing jewels and pla.te, not a single trace.

In every case the work was done quietly, cleanly and expeditiously — " the gang," as everybody called them, left neither hand-prints nor foot-marks behind them — it was, in fact, as if the missing valuables had been spirited away. Perhaps the only person in the town who did not seem particularly disturbed by all these dreadful occurrences was the little widow in St. Eve's. But, as she herself said, though of course she was dreadfully sorry for dear Lady Lucifer and Miss Lithgow, and for Mrs. Lovelace and the Bishop too, yet it really was no use her pretending to be in fear for herself. She had nothing to lose, she said, and it was well known that burglars never took the trouble to break into houses without being very sure beforehand what there was to get. "And as there is nothing to get here," explained Mrs. Trafford with her little airy laugh — " why I know very well they won't come."

" And if they did ? " asked Mrs. Bob with a shudder. " Well, if they did I should be very polite and I should say ' If you please, Mr. Burglar, there is nothing here. I will look the other way and swear anything }-ou like, so long as you won't touch me.' And I believe," Mrs. Trafford ended — " that any well-conditioned burglar would act like a gentleman and go away. Yes, I do really." " Horrid woman," muttered Mrs. Lovelace to her Major, " I wish they would go and give her a good fright one night. I wonder if one could get a couple of ruffians to go one ni'dit and see if she is as brave as her word. Upon my word, it would be worth a fiver for each of them."

Chapter II. Home Again

We most willingly embrace the offer of your friendship. What is this confounded cur ? " It is my dog ; love him for my sake." — Elia. Meantime Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Howard had been to Paris for a fortnight and had then returned to London, wdiere they proposed staying until a few days before Christmas. They had quite decided upon making their head-quarters in Town and, as they would be away so much, thought that it would be wisest for them to take a flat. Julia — or as her husband now called her Juey — had always had a fancy for a flat, a good flat at a rental of about four hundred a year, and this was not so difficult for them to find as she and her mother had not so very long before found the little pied-a-terre which they had sought so earnestly in the streets of Mayfair. In writing to Laura Staunton, Julia said that she was having a lovely time.

They had got a flat situate in the best part of Victoria Street and it was being fitted up to her exact taste in every way. Her boudoir was lined with yellow brocade, the colour of a buttercup, the hangings were of cream silk with gold embroideries, the furniture was entirely of white enamel with yellow brocade cushions. In one corner was a cabinet of old ivories, worth so much that Julia did not quite like to think of what they had cost, in another recess was a service of old red and gold Derby. There were fine old fans on the walls, neat little nests of book shelves filled now with all Julia's favourite books bound to keep in harmony with the colouring of the room. There were all her own especial photographs set here and there and several of the cosiest settees possible and a charming cosy-corner on one side of the pretty fire-place, a corner for real luxurious vol. n. MRS. BOB. ease among large and downy cushions clad in the smartest and richest of frocks and frills.

Nor was the boudoir the only pretty room in the flat, the mistress's bedroom and the dressing-room and bath-room adjoining were dressed in a mixture of white enamel furniture and pale pink cretonne, with hangings to match and all sorts of neatly contrived nooks and corners of convenience — " And I think," said Julia after describing all these delights to Lady Staunton — " that I shall not want to go away from my beautiful home for a long long time." However, two days before Christmas saw Stephen Howard and his wife on their way to Blankhampton, where they found Mrs. Trafford and Mrs. Bob waiting at the station to receive them. And then they drove to Brentwood, where Mrs. Trafford was also staying, and after that, there began a round of pleasure for Julia wherein she was the central figure.

Everybody was glad to see her and everybody wanted her to go and see them, even the ancient damsels at No. 10, smiled quite graciously when they met her in the street and on one occasion conde scended to utter half-a-dozen tolerably friendly sentences to her when they met her in a shop in the High Street. By this time Mrs. Bob had become quite the most popular woman for several miles round Blankhampton. She was not inclined to be stand-off-ish towards anybody, and treated Mrs. John Doughty exactly the same as she treated any one of the Civic dignitaries. She did not seem to mind whether she was talking to the wife of the Lord Bishop or the spouse of the youngest parson attached to the Parish. Lady Lucifer was her great friend and Mrs. Trafford perhaps her next intimate, and for all the rest, she seemed to make no difference, and everybody excused her on the ground of her having been born on the other side of the world — " She's an Australian, you know, and people in these new countries are all so unconventional."

As for Bob himself, he was so much 17* MRS. BOB. occupied by looking after the alterations and repairs at the Manor Lodge that he troubled himself very little about society one way or the other. He was always ready and in his place when there was a festivity of any kind on at Brentwood, and he was always dressed and ready when the carriage came to take them to any evening function at some one else's house — but he very seldom showed himself anywhere with his wife during the day except it was at the Parish on Sunday afternoon and afterwards in Mrs. Trafford's drawing-room. And whenever and wherever he was seen he was alike to all in his demeanour, always friendly in a hearty and unconven tional sort of way, as ready to walk down the street with the dealer of whom he bought his horses as he was with the great John himself.

Bob Markham delighted the good people of Blankhampton hugely one morning by deliberately chaffing Mrs. Fairlie when he met her for the first time in company with the redoubtable black poodle. At first he did not see that the dog was with her, did not in fact see that the dog was there at all, but the Blankhampton Lily was rather a pretty woman and Bob Markham had an uncom monly keen eye for feminine looks. So meeting her, he stopped short and enquired in his hearty old-fashioned way, after her health, and Mrs. Fairlie was immediately all smiles and little airs and graces. Then while he still held her hand Bob caught sight of the dog — his gaze was rivetted upon it in a moment and he forgot to wait for her reply to his anxious question about the state of her health. " Good God, Madam," he burst out — " do you see that brute with the bracelets on its legs ?

Who in the world can he belong to ? " That is my dog, Mr. Markham," said Mrs. Fairlie very sweetly. " Tour's!" he echoed — then looked at her sharply, at the correct Directoire costume in which she was dressed, at the three-cornered felt hat with its long buckle of cut steel at one side, at the soft white frill falling from MRS. BOB. her collar, at her big buttons, her long stick, the broad silver buckles on her shoes, then back at the dog, after which he suddenly realized that the woman and the dog matched one another admirably. With the realization came a sense of the ridiculous side of the matter and Bob straightway went into an elaborate string of questions — did she put his hair in papers at night ? Did she have a jewel-box for his jewelry ? Wasn't she afraid of the gang paying her a visit ?

And a great many more such questions all asked with such perfect good humour that the Lily had no opportunity of taking offence, and then at last they parted and he watched her go sailing up the street, he with difficulty containing himself until she had got out of hearing. And then how he laughed, in fact he had to go into the gunsmith's near which they had stood while they talked, and there in safe retreat he sat and laughed until, as he told the gunsmith when he was able to speak, he thought he should have had a fit. " Bob, you really ought not to do it," cried Mrs. Bob, when her husband repeated the story. " But have you ever seen the brute ? " he returned, chuckling at the very idea of it. " Of course I have seen the dog," Mrs. Bob replied — " everybody has seen it except you, you dear old blind bat.

That poodle is just now the very light of Mrs. Fairlie's eyes — it's like her stick, all her own. Why, not another woman in Blankhampton would dare to be seen with either. But all the same you must remember that Mrs. Fairlie is a very important person in the town, in her own estimation if in nobody else's, and it won't do for }-ou to go offending her. Just fancy if anybody saw you actually laughing at her in the street." "They did," shouted Bob with a great laugh — " I just roared. And I tell you I had to go into Fuller's, the gunsmith's, and I laughed so I had to tell him what I was laughing at. I couldn't help myself." " Oh ! Fuller is safe enough — he won't talk about it to anybody likelv to repeat it to the MRS. BOB. 24 Fairlies," Mrs. Bob remarked. "But, all the same, Bob, I shouldn't go doing that kind of thing again if I were you.

Remember we are new people here and it won't be very pleasant if we begin by making ourselves unpopular." Bob put on a look of comic dismay — " That is the way Maimie always bullies me," he remarked to Julia — " that's the way you will bully Steve when you have been married as many jrears as we have." " Oh ! very much worse than that," answrered Julia gaily, and then she looked at Stephen and smiled and Stephen smiled back at her, and this sent Bob into such an ecstacy of enjoyment that he was obliged to wink at his wife and then bolt out of the room to have his laugh out elsewhere. But nobody could be offended at Bob Markham's fun and Julia found him the most delightful brother-in-law in the whole world in spite of the fact that Anthony Staunton had his own tender niche within her heart. And he was so generous too, for notwith standing that but a few weeks before Julia's II0MU AGAIN. 25 most beautiful wedding gift had come from the Markhams, she found among her letters on Christmas morning a receipted bill from Botwood of Ipswich for a charming single brougham, the like of which Julia had greatly envied his wife having the possession, that is if such a word can be applied to a genuine outspoken admiration for the belongings of another person.

Really there was ample grounds for the remark which Mrs. Trafford at that time was in the habit of making to such persons as questioned her about the last marriage. " Oh ! yes. I am perfectly satisfied with the marriage, perfectly." Not that such an endorsement in itself was calculated to carry much weight with the people of Blankhampton. When a woman talked about the happiness of her newly married daughter, the words generally con veyed that there was plenty of money and that if Mary or Margaret was not happy that she ought to be. But in this instance there was the tall and handsome voung husband to MRS. BOB. 26 show that the bride ought to thank Providence for her fate, and also there was the bride's own happy face and air of assured gaiety and satisfiedness, so Blankhampton accepted Mrs. Trafford's verdict on the marriage without a word of disapproval or even a sniff, and once more the word went round that the little widow in St. Eve's was really a very remark able woman. (3 /^5i? \ G)