The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1890-08-28
MRS. Bob-
BY JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
1AutEor of" Bottles Baby" beautiful Jim, "
Etc, Etc.
CHAPTER xx.-A BUNDLE OF NERVES.

it was. For Little Street Hall, the abode
of the two Misses Staunton was broken
into and rifed of almost every movable
valuable that it contained
The facts were these! After the brilliant
hOuse-party of which Mrs. Trafford had
formed one, year previous to the time of
which I am speaking, the old ladies had
not been at Little Street Hall for any
length of time. For Miss Lavinia, feeling
herself to be a very personable middle
aged lady still, took it into her head that
she must have season in town.
In vain did Miss Theodosia try to get
out of it. Miss Lavinia had made up her
mind to CO. and when Miss Lavinia was
pleased to make up her mind to wander
thther did Miss Theodosia, moved by the
habit of sixty years of giving in to her
beauty-sister, invariably follow. AS said
the older lady tried her best to get out of
it, urging that at seventy and odd years
it is desirable to lead quiet life and that
the rackettings and junkettings Of Lon
don season were about calculated to make
her shuttle off this mortal coil altogether.
But it was all in vain; Miss Lavinia had
made up her mind, therefore Miss Theo-
dosia had little or no choice other than to
gracefully resign herself to the inevitable,
only bargaining for u house in Queens
Gate or failing that in the Exhibition Road
or Immediately out of it.
"My dear Lavinia, l would rather be
there than anywhere can breathe there
Il cannot breathe in Mayfair, so l must
beg that you will be kind enough to DO as
l wish. prefer Queens Gate or some
where very near to it where [ can have a
decent sized bedroom and q fairly good
staircase And I wish the horses to have
good new well-vent ilated stables so that
they will not feel much difference from
their OWN
Therefore, the beginning of April saw
the two old ladies safely settled in u hand
sOmely furnished house in Queens Gate,
at the end nearest the park; and from that
time until the middle of July they went
in for q life Of dissipation such us was
really dreadful to think of. They were
rich and well-bOrn and always beautifully
dressed, and Miss Theodosia displayed
"the finest rubies in Europe" at SO many
dinner-parties that her digestion was quite
ruined. Oh! pardon me, gentle reader,
what do you please to say? That little
while back | described Miss Theodosia's
rubies as the finest in England. Scarcely,
but Mrs Trafford did so-and that was in
Blankhampton. At all times we must
make allowances for Metropolitan hyper
bole. 1t is always sol In London II
woman is fat, she as matter CT course
is always called Handsomely she is tall
and slender, she is called pretty-if she
is tall and finely made they say she looks
beautiful. If she is q somebody, and is
really too hideous for words, the parag-
raphists make point either of saying
that she is very chic or else that her fine
face was well set off by such and such a
bonnet.
AS an instance, there is a lady in Lon
don now who burst upon the world in the
character of very rich woman and two
seasons ago she was called Madame
CrOeSus" by half the society papers in
town. Last season she received brevet
rank and was promoted to Princess
CrRsus." But if you will believe me be-
fore those few months were over she was
blazoned forth as Queen CrM3us" after
which, as it seems in my poor Judgment,
there remains nothing for these dear peO-
pie to do now but to call the lady the
Golden Calf outright. Yes, it will be
carrying personal journalism a little far
however, as an imaginative writer, | of
fer them the poor suggestion for what it is
worth
Well, it was much the same with Miss
Theodosias beautiful rubies. Sure, they
were gems of great value, pearls of great
price. Miss TheOdOsia was inclined to
stOutness, was very fair still, dressed well,
and did not hide her neck, and the great
wells of blood-red light became the object
of much comment. And as they became
known they also advanced in value, and
passed from the perhaps somewhat ex-
travagant description of the finest rubies
in England to the most valuable rubies in
Europe. And why not? When you so in
for display, why not as well be hanged
for sheep as Il lamb? Doubtless had
Miss TheOdosia gone to London the fol
lowing season her rubieS would have been
reckoned still higher and all the world
would have been challenged to outshine
them. AS it was however, circumstances
interviewed. And in this way. To be
quite frank, the celebrated rubies received
SO many invitations to dinner, that by the
middle of July their owners digestion
had gone to pieces and the two old ladies
were peremptorily packed off to German
Bad, to be followed by six weeks in the
Engadine, a sojourn by the Italian lakes
and a winter at Monte Carlo and the adj
jacent towns.
Meanwhile, the rubies were locked up
for the benefit of their health in the
strong room of the bank where the sisters
kept their valuables, and did not see the
light again until they were sent to be
cleaned in February, when the sisters re-
turned to Little Street to entertain the
usual party of that month. And the day
after they were sent down, the rubies
went, aye and practically everything else
of value in the house went also.
And then what weeping and wall
ing there was! How Miss Lavinia shiver-
ed and shuddered as she went up the wide
old ghostly stairs and insisted upon two
of the men servants sleeping in a room on
the other side Of the corridor, and that her
maid should sleep in her dressing-rcom;
how she upbraided Miss Theodosia for
her cruel heartlessness in giving all her
thoughts to the jewels, when she was
frightened nearly out of her seven senses
at which Miss Theodosia retorted sharp
ly that she could not possibly be frighten-
ed out of what she hadn't got, a remark
which Miss Tiayinia took as personal and