A Reconstructed Marriage. Barr Amelia E.

to blame for its quarrelsome atmosphere, she was not influenced by a truth she chose to ignore. Ever since dinner she had been talking to her daughters of Theodora, and her smouldering dislike was now a flaming one. The application for clean linen had made her furious, and she was scolding about it when Robert entered the room. But he knew before he opened the door of his mother's parlor what he had to meet, and the dormant demon of his own temper roused itself for the encounter. He went into her presence with a face like a thundercloud, and asked angrily:

      "Why did you let any one – I say any one – into my rooms, mother? I think their occupancy without my permission a scandalous piece of business."

      "Keep your temper, Robert Campbell, for your wife. She will need it, I warrant."

      "Answer my question, if you please!"

      "Well, then, if it is scandalous to entertain your kindred, it would have been much more scandalous to have turned them out of the house."

      "Kindred! It is a far cry to call kindred with that Crawford and Laird crowd. I will not have them here! Take notice of that."

      "They will come here when they come to Glasgow."

      "Then I shall turn them out."

      "Then I shall go out with them."

      "My rooms – "

      "Preserve us! No harm has been done to your rooms."

      "They have been defiled in every way – old curl papers, dirty hairpins, stains on the carpets and covers. I burn with shame when I think of my wife seeing their vulgar remains."

      "Your wife? Your wife, indeed! She is – "

      "I don't want your opinion of my wife."

      "You born idiot! What do you want?"

      "I want you to write to the women who opened my wife's trunks, and ruined her clothing, and stole her jewelry, or I – "

      "Don't you dare to throw 'or' at me. I can say 'or' as big as you. What before earth and heaven are you saying!"

      "That my rooms have been entered, my wife's trunks broken open – "

      "You have said that once already! I had the Dalkeiths in my spare rooms. Was I to turn the Crawfords and the Lairds on to the sidewalk because your rooms had been refurnished for Dora Newton?"

      "Campbell is my wife's name."

      "I thank God your kindred had the first use of your rooms! You ought to be glad of the circumstance. And pray, what harm is there in opening a bride's trunks?"

      "Only burglary."

      "Don't be a tenfold fool. A bride's costumes are always examined by her women kin and friends. My trunks were all opened by the Campbells before your father brought me home. Every Scotch bride expects it, and if you have married a poor, silly English girl, who knows nothing of the ways and manners of your native country, I am not to blame."

      "Let me tell you – "

      "Let me finish, sir. I wish to say there was nothing in Dora Newton's trunks worth looking at – home-made gowns, and the like."

      "Yet two of them have been worn and ruined."

      "Jean Crawford and Bell Greenhill wore them a few times. They wanted to go to the theatre or somewhere, and had not brought evening gowns with them. I told them to wear some of Dora's things. Why not? She is in the family now, more's the pity."

      "They had no right to touch them."

      "I'm sure I wish they had not worn them. Jean and Bell are stylish-looking girls in their own gowns. Dora's made them look dowdy and common. I was fairly sorry for them."

      "Which of them wore Theodora's ring? That ring must come back —must, I say. Understand me, mother, it must come back."

      "If it is lost – "

      "It will be a case for the police – sure as death!"

      The oath frightened her. "You have lost your senses, Robert," she cried; "you are fairly bewitched. And oh, what a miserable woman I am! Both my lads!" and she covered her face with her handkerchief, and began to sigh and sob bitterly.

      Then Isabel went to her mother's side, and as she did so said with scornful anger:

      "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Robert Campbell. You have nearly broken your mother's heart by your disgraceful marriage. Can you not make Dora behave decently, and not turn the old home and our poor simple lives upside down, with all she requires?"

      "Isabel, do you think it was right to put people in the rooms I had spent so much time and money in furnishing?"

      "Quite right, seeing the people were our own kindred. It was not right to spend all the time and money you spent on those rooms for a stranger. You ought to be glad some of your own family got a little pleasure in them first of all."

      "They did not know how to use them. Both the Crawfords and Lairds are vulgar, common, and uneducated women. They know nothing of the decencies of life."

      "That may be true, but they are mother's kin, and blood is thicker than water. The Crawfords and Lairds are blood-kin; Dora is only water."

      "Theodora is my wife. I see that mother will no longer listen to me. Try and convince her that I am in earnest. My rooms are my rooms, and no one comes into them unless they are invited by Theodora or myself. My wife's clothing and ornaments of all kinds belong to my wife, and not to the whole family. Write to Jean Crawford, and Bell Greenhill, and tell them to return all they have taken, or I shall make them do so."

      "I suppose, Robert, they have only borrowed whatever they have. They often borrow my rings and brooches and even my dresses."

      "Isabel, when people borrow even a ring, without the knowledge and consent of the owner, the law calls it stealing; and the person who has so borrowed it, the law calls a thief. I hope you understand me."