The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-08-02
MRS. WINCH'S REVENGE.
A Stock Exchange IdyI of Love and
Hate.
London Society.

London Society. itra
There were moments now when Shoddyson
found her odious-she whom years ago he
thought tho most charming woman he had
ever met But with the last decade Mrs.
Winch's sharp features had become sharper,
her smile more metallic and her hair of more
startling red, while her little youthful petu
lances had developed into unvarnished bad
temper. And tonight as they sat at dinner in
private room at Voisin's, Lawrence Shoddy-
stone was visibly perturbed by the announce
ment which he must presently make.
1t was for this, to be sure, that he had run
over to Paris, leaving town in the first venture
of spring and his betrothed in the first tremors
of her engagement. Not that Lady Sarah
could truthfully be said to have INDUCED in
tremors on any occasion. Lady Sarah Hard
man was, as any one may see in the Peerage
exactly 30 years of age, and she was, in addi-
ton, handsome, self-satisfed and self-opin-
donated young woman. When the years had
fed away and left her still SINGLE she had
finally resolved, as a last resource, to capti-
vate this successful stock broker whom the
fates had thrown across her path in a country
house the previous winter; for ducats were
few and daughters were many in the noble
house of Hardman Mr.. Lawrence Shoddy-
son had a bilious eye and sallow skin, and
mouth. But he was always we'll dressed, and
he was not bad looking-as men about town
look.
But as yet the engagement was unannounc-
ed, and Shoddyson, as he furtively Surveyed
the hard-lined face of Theodore Winch, was
at a loss to break the news. There was some
thing uncompromising even in the way the
lady's narrow velvet bonnet strings were
tightly fastened under her chin with diamond
scorpion (he had given her that scorpion, by
Il, s,,fl fl,ar &n,tx sp Iar 1fs III
shouldered gown and immaculate gray gloves
which she had not removed when they began
to eat their dinner. There was an air of pro-
prietorship, too, IN the way Theodore smilingly
warned him from certain dishes which the
drab-faced walters produced while she advo-
Gated claret and forbade him the champagne.
To be sure the two were old allies. She had
been one of his first clients when he started on
the Stock Exchange; and any time the last
fifteen years he had been accustomed to run
over to Paris when she wished to consult him
about some investment. Shoddystone d Co.
did large business with French clients, SO
that profit as well as pleasure, often brought
him to the French capital. He had always
been fiattered and petted in Mrs. Winch's
pretty apartment in the Avenue Kleber; he
had gone with her to the play, to the milln-
er's, to the circus, to the races. Theodore had
nicknamed the young man "Bogey" in the
days gone by, and while she was young and
fairly pretty the thing had been we'll enough;
but it was preposterous, Shoddyson told
himself with groan, for man to be called
"Bogey" by a woman who can no longer con-
ceal her wrinkles and when he is 43 years OF
age and about to contract an alliance with
daughter of an English peer.
Mrs. Winch was one of large class who
affect the Champs Elysees quarter. American
by birth, she had been educated in Europe,
and after brief experience Of matrimony in
and country and taken up her abode in the
American colony in Paris, and Winch, like
other transatlantic husbands, had been, it
would seem, by no means averse to the ar
rangement. There had been talk of divorce
at first and then difficulties had cropped up!
and so the thing had gone on. But one day
about a year ago, the husband had fallen
down dead on Wall street, after which the
wife wore elegant black and entertained
serious thoughts of marrying again. And the
person she meant to marry was Lawrence
Shoddyson.
Dinner was over The walters had with
drawn, leaving coffee and liquors at their
elbow The May night was warm, and pres
emily Lawrence rose and flung open the window
Of the tiny room-a room fusty with hundred
departed jewellers, with the fumes of fifty
bygone feasts. He leaned his arm upon the
iron balcony and gazed down into the street.
The rush and whirl of nocturnal Paris lay
below him, and he fervently wished himself
anywhere but there In all his SNUG, prosper
GUS and self-satisfed existence he had never
known such an uncomfortable moment as this
1t is aWkward-very awkward-to tell the
woman who has been devoted to you for ff-
teen years that you are about TO marry some
one else.
"Bogey," murmured Theodore In her soft
babyish voice-for, though an astute and
long-headed business woman, the lady affected
childish manners-'don't hang out or the
window like that. Come and sit here. What's
the matter9 Why, you've hardly spoken six
words tonight. Are you''-with an un-
pleasant little laugh-''are you in love ?"
The man flushed up to the roots OF his hair.
She had given him an opportunity, and he
took it, brutally, coarsely, like the half-bred
creature he was.
~ DON'T know about being In love-" he said
with conscious snigger "but-hangit all
well-rm thinkng-of getting married"
For while the room was SO silent that you
could hear the people talking In the Rue st.
|. Honore below. Some one was putting lady
4 into carriage, and you could hear the door
\ shutting to and the direction to the coachman
"Au Cirque OLIVER"
A 'sTo whom ?n This time Mrs, Winch's
voice was no longer soft and lisping.
"Well, the fact is, Theo. that l thought
it about time to pull up a bit-and-well
it's daughter of the Marquis Of Bloomsbury
( Lady Sarah,"
''Lady Sarah p said Mrs. Winch. "The
girl who comes to Paris to get her shoes made !
wish-well, l wish you ioy' There was an
awkward pause, during which Mrs. Winch