The Penn's Grove record., 1883-10-13
A Young wife at Richmond.


Mr.. Thomas Bilbury is the junior
partner in the great firm of Bilbury.
Backbone & Co., tea merchants O
Calcutta and London. The senior part
ner is Mr.. Joseph Bilbury, his father.
who has a very nice house ut Kew ant
until a year or two ago there was q
third member in the firm in the persol
of Thomas uncle, Mr.. Darlington
Backbone, the Calcutta representa-
tive of the establishment. But, unfor-
tunately, Mr.. Blackthorne, like many
Englishmen who live in India, drank
too much Scotch whisky and Bass ale,
and ate too much curry and too many
"Bombay ducks - the result being that
at the age or fifty-iye his liver declined
to bear the strain put upon it, and col.
lapsed,, leaving its owaer so weak and
III that he had barely time ere he died
to telegraph to his partners in England
a brief notice of his impending fate.
! This alarming despatch arrived at a
particularly inopportune moment. Mr..
Thomas Bilbury had ON the day pre-
| vious, married a very charming young
lady, Lydia Lapples by name /; and the
intelligence of his uncle's sad condition
necessitated that the newly-made hus
band-who, by the way, had only be-
tcome acquainted with his bride about
six weeks before marriage should,
without a. moments delay, take the
train for Dover, cross to Calais, and
thence go by the quickest route to Cal
eutta. The affair was pressing. Mr..
Blackthorne's death would certainly
| throw the business into confusion, and
any hesitation IN the part of the English
partners might imperil the future of
the firm.
$50 at once, my dear boy" wrote
Mr.. Joseph Bilbury to his son, who was
in the Isle of Wight, 'sand send your
wife to me. l will take are of her,
and see her settled in your new home
at Richmond. Iwouid go myself, but
my govt won't allow me. And, above
all things, take care OF your liver"
There was no help for it. MI. Bill
bury, Jr., felt that be must go ; 70 go
he did, putting the best face on the
matter, and bidding a very long and
tender goodbye to his poor little wife.
He escorted her across to Portsmouth.
put her into a London train, kissed her,
saw her off, and then took the next
train for Dover.
She settled down inner new home on
Richmond Hill and he for many
moths afterward worked hard at his
desk in Calcutta, arranging the worldly
affairs of his dead uncle, and from
time to time sending home reports OF
his progress, and love-letters to Lydia.
Two years, in fact, elapsed ere he.
was able to return to England, and
then he returned, ashe had gone out,
at a moments notice. Unforeseen cir
cumstances suddenly left him free /;
and, unwilling to lose a day, he took
the first homeward- bound steamer,
which, SO it happened, was also talking
to Richmond a letter, written a few
days caller, in which Mr.. Blbury,
among other matters, regretted to his
wife that the pressure of business would
not leave him at liberty for at least a
month.
He travelled home without adventure,
landed in due curse at Dover, arrived
in London late at night, and, without
having written a word of warning to
Lydia, hurried on next morning to
Richmond Hill. Why he did not write
or telegraph, we cannot say perhaps
he thought his sudden appearance would
agreeably surprise his wife or perhaps
he was too excited to be able to thinka at
all. But in any case, he neither wrote
nor t~elegraped a single word of prepare
tion.
1t was a fine sunny morning in Sum
mer Mr.. Thomas Bilbury had scarcely
seen his new home, which he had taken
in a hurry Immediately before his we'd
ding and he was walking eagerly up
the shot carriage drive leading to the
house, when, happening to cast his gaze
toward the upward the upper windows,
he caught sight of a fair, white-draped
figure which was watering some flower
ing plants that stood in a row ON the
sill. He at once recognized the figure as
| that of his wife, and was about to utter
a cry of salutation when he suddenly
became conscious that she did not re-
cognize him, for with graceful modes
| ty she withdrew from the window and
disappeared az as she became con-
scious that he was watching her. An
idea struck him. 1t was a foolish, but
not wholly Unnatural, one. He would
pretend to be some VA elsa friend,
say, of her husbaDd's-and would ask
to see her as such. OF course the
would at one recognize his voice but
then the surprise, and the consequent
pleasure would be the more complete
if he thus deferred them. He knocked,
therefore, at the door, and to the SER
want who appeared announced that he
had just returned from India and de.
sired to see Mrs. Bilbury. He gave no
name, but he was admitted and shown