A RECONSTRUCTED MARRIAGE

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?"

"I can only have one opinion, mother. You know on what occasion a young
man gives such a Bible. I am compelled to believe that Robert is engaged
to marry some woman called Theodora, who lives probably at Kendal."

"He can not! He shall not! He must marry Jane Dalkeith,--Jane, and no
other woman. I will not permit him to bring a stranger here, and an
Englishwoman is out of all consideration. _Theodora, indeed! Theodora!_"
and she flung the three words from her with a scorn no language could
transcribe.

"It is not a Scotch name, mother. I never knew any one called
Theodora."

"Scotch? the idea! Does it sound like Scotch? No, not a letter of it.
There were never any Theodoras among the Traquairs, or the Campbells,
and I will not have any. Robert will find that out very quickly. Why,
Isabel, Honor is before Love, and Honor compels Robert to marry Jane
Dalkeith. Her father saved Robert's father from utter ruin, and I
believe Jane holds some claim yet upon the Campbell furnaces.