The Democratic advocate., 1892-07-30
Select gtOrg.
REDMAYNE'S WIFE,
From All the Year Around.
CHAPTER 1.


CHAPTER 1.
1t would be impossible for me to ex-
press in anything like reasonable terms the
astonishment, not to speak of much
stronger feeling, with which | one day
received the news that Philip Redmayne,
who had left home ostensibly for week S
holiday, had brought wife back with him
Naturally enough, | at first poohpoohed
the news as being the invention of some
one who had grudge against him, or was
minded to make him the victim of fool.
ish joke; but few hours later the news
was confirmed in way which left me nc
room for doubt. The wary bachelor of 30
who had been unsuccessfully angled for by
so many mammas with manageable dapgh-
ters. had been caught at last. Phil Red
mayne was really and truly married man
was his godfather, and had been his
guardian till he came of age, and | had
always felt as much regard for the boy a:
if he had been my own son. Not, mind
YOU, that there was any likelihood of my
having a son of my own, for | had def
nitely ajured matrimony and all its snares
ever since that day, 80 years before, when
Matilda Jane
But that is not to the purpose of my
narrative.
Here I may take the opportunity of in
Producing myself more specifically to the
readers notice. My name, then, is Josiah
Crocker, of the firm of Crocker & WHISKY
brewers, Tidsthorpe, Dissex.
1t was to Fidsthorpe that my godson
came on his arrival at mans estate, and
when he had served his time in the Office
of the land surveyor to whom, at bis OWL
request, he had been articled. 1t was then
that had the pleasure of handing over tc
him certain coupons to the value of 99, 900
for to that amount had his inheritance
grown through careful husbandry on my
part during the years of his minority.
Before Phil was many months older he
had set up in business at Tidsthorpe on
bis oyp account as land surveyor, estate
agent, and / know not what besides, for he
was eminently of a speculative turn of mind
and by no means disposed to contine him
self to the strict lines Of the profession to
which he had been brough up. He took tc
the buying and selling of house property, and
opened a wharf at the new railway station
With pateHt apparatus of his own inyen,
ton for screening coal. Fhea he contract
ed an interest in more than one of the
schooners engaged In the coasting trade
between the neighboring town of Perry
beach and sundry other ports. A little
later be became proprietor of the Haredale
lime kilns, situated abpHt three miles from
Tidsthorpe, which had proved a disastrous
speculation to their previous owner, who
was glad to get rid of them at any price.
No thought of taking to himself wife
seemed ever to enter Phil's mind; and ]
could not but applaud his good sense in
copying the example OF his godfather in
keeping himself aloof from all feminine en-
tanglements. All the harder, therefore,
to bear was the blow when it did fall.
But when Phil brought his wife to see
me-which be did op the day following
their arrival at home-l almost found ip
my heart to forgive him his folly. She
was SO sWeetly pretty, so fresh, so innocent
looking, SO charming In every way that,
had | been 80 years younger, and had the
chance been put in my way, would not
have answered for the strength of my
resolves never to venture into the pitfall
of matrimony.
Her manner was childlike and caressing
and she spoke with just enough suspicion
of a foreign accent TO lend an added piquancy
to all she said. Her name was Mimi
Mimi Ducios it had been before her mar
riage. He father, Frenchman, had mar
ried an English girl, and she had been
brought up partly in the country of oRe
parent and partly in that of the other.
In any case, Mrs. Phil was a charming
little body-one could scarcely think of
her as a full grown woman-and much
might be forgiven the man who had chosen
to fling behind him the freedom and pleas
ures of bachelorhood for the sake of her
bonny blue eyes.
Up to the time of his marriage Phil had
been content to live the life Of bachelor
in lodgings; now, however, it was only to
be expected that he and his wife would
want house of their own. Still it was a
matter Of surprise, not to me only, but to
the whole town generally, when il became
known that Phil had decided to set up
housekeeping at Needwood Lodge, an cid
fashioned country mansion which stood in
its own grounds mile or more away on