The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1890-08-21
MRS. 80 b
BY JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
Author Of" Boobies Baby" Beautiful Jan, "
Etc, Etc.
CHAPTER xIx.-A BUSINESS SECRET.

Stephen were still utterly and entirely in
love with one another and were, as many
of their friends said, quite pattern to
young married people in general, and
those of their own acquaintance in par
ticular
It is true that her sister and cousin still
seemed equally happy, but changes had
come to them and they had neither of
them been able to set up in quite the
same style as Stephen Howard and his
wife lived in. And Madge had got an
other baby, another beautiful person, a
little girl. with her mothers soft velvet
like eyes and something Of Lady Gee
springs seraphic expression of face, a
satin-skinned person who seemed to enjoy
tucking her little pink and dimpled fist
into her mouth equally as much as she
enjoyed long and strong draughts from
bottle with an India-rubber arrangement
at one end and cork at the top.
And Laura had got baby, too, also a
girl, little Theo, q reproduction of her
handsome father just softened by the diff
ference of sex. That baby had made
great difference to her father and mother;
for the income of u man so very much de-
ponds upon the standpoint from which
you choose to look at it-and a handsome
allowance, with a certain emphasis on the
adjective, is one thing when you arrange to
settle it on some one else, presumably
YOUR heir, and quite another to the heir
who looks forward to one day enjoying
the reversion of your income ana estate to
the tune of just as many thousands as
you have made your allowance hundreds.
Nevertheless, Sir Anthony and his wife
were Unfortunately proud of the little TheO
and thought and said that such a won
derful child had never been born into the
world, or, for the matter of that, was ever
likely to be born into the world again.
No little voice had come to make dis
turbance in the pretty fat in Victoria
Street nor did there seem to be any pros
pect of such a contingency happening.
''Such pity" as Mrs. Trafford said one
day to Mrs. Bob.
Eyes, it is-and it isn't" Mrs. Bob re-
piled. I'm way it's great pity-but
Stephen and Julia really do seem SO de-
voted to one another and almost as if they
don't care whether they have children or
not, and somehow since [ lost my baby /
feel as if the people who don't have them
are better off than those who have them
and lose them"
eyes, yes" answered Mrs. Trafford in a
sympathetic tOle. Eyes, yes. Well, Julia
has never mentioned babies to me and l
really don't know whether she cares any
thing about them or not. She makes
great fuss over her god-child, little Theo
but really she is so wrapped UP in Steph-
en- that think she is perfectly happy as
she is"
BY this time other radical changes had
come about besides the advent of another
generation. At last Mrs. Trafford had
carried her threats into effect and had
turned her back upon the good society of
Blankhampton for the wider and more
interesting sphere of life in London. Her
little picd-G-terre had finally resolved it
self into a sweet little entresol at the 9th
er end of Victoria Street to that in which
the Step hen Towards fiat stood. Here
she had already established very much
the same kind of salon for which she had
been renowned in the old city where she
had had such enormous and satisfactory
success in the matter Of settling her girls
comfortably and suitably in life. That
was Il phrase which was very often in
Mrs. Trafford's mouth. "Yes-I have
been very fortunate in my girls" she
would say, "fOr you see they have not
only settled comfortably but also very
suitably"
In London Mrs. Bob became very soon
quite as popular as she had always been
IN Blankhampton, and being a very in
innate friend of Lady Lucifer's, she had
the opportunity of knowing very good
people.
Mrs. Trafford and Julia Howard also
knew if not better set of people than
they had known in Blankhampton, at
least a less mixed one, and really the life
which Julia led was what Mrs. Trafford
described as Unfortunately gay. ooh! Julia
has no time for babies" she said, with
laugh, to Mrs. Bob; ut is quite as we'll
that she has none"
Eyes, think it is, " returned Mrs. Bob,
who had always been of that opinion.
Well, as l said before, at this time Julia
was very happy. Stephen was all that
the most exacting wife could desire, the
husband of year and half was the
lover still. and very charming and de-
lightful kind of lover, too. And yet
why, wonder is there always YETI
yet, the little cloud which had troubled
Julia so much at the time of her marriage
udU uOb NduISuGu. dlGnOuSA It's ShdL dSoCA
had altered a good deal. She was not
jealous of Mrs. Bob nOw-Oh, no, that
feeling had died out long ago. She had
always been fond of her, extremely fond
of her, and she had come to the conclusion
that she was not in any sense to be looked
upon as rival. And yet, the cloud was
still there and from having the shape of
Mrs. Bob, it had grown and changed in
character until now it had no palpable
form at all, and was indeed nothing but
q blurred, shapeless presence, without
outlines. without color, mere mist with
which Julia felt that she was powerless
to deal. 1t was all so odd, too, so i'm
palpable, that her very feelings about it
were indefnable. One day she would be
in the depths of despair, feeling plainly
though, without apparent cause, that
there was a part of Stephens life into
which she was never able to enter, into
which he did not intend that she ever
should enter. Why she should think this
she hardly knew-and yet she thought at
times that she did know. For sometimes
she would watch him sitting in an easy
chair. with his nine in his mouth buried