The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1896-02-22
MIS- -3o7b-
BY JOHN STRANGE WINTER,
Author OF "Bootfes' Batg,r Beautiful
Jtia,'' Etc. Ere.
CHAPTER IA sRntors QUESTION.

H'N As''Fs .Z ~Se't w
Jlm.i Etc. ETC.
CHAPTER IA SERIOUS QUESTION.
After Mrs. Trafforl's niece was married
to the Honorable Marcus Oxford of the
Black Horse and her daughter to Sir
Anthony Stanton of thds same regiment.
she declared TO everybody that she no
longer intended to live III Blankhampton.
There were i'll -naturea aud env ious peo-
Pile in the Town who remarked that
Blankhampton had done uncommouiy
well by Mrs. Trafford. and that for her to
hetake herself out of it rs soon as she
had secured the Two beSt matches of
that year was n regular case of burning
her boats hahind her aud kicking down
the ladder by which she had climbed to
fame and fortune.
Mrs. Trafford was resolute however aud
actually before the Stanntons had return
ed from their honeymoon she. with her
eldest and only unmarried flower, Julia,
packed up their boxes and went off to
London town for the ostensible purpose
of finding what Mrs. Truiford, like n good
many other people who do not wish to
set up a large establishment called u
Tied-tt-te1rc.
IL vas an innocent pilgrimage. They
put up at The Grand and worked from
thence West by Southwest. They wanted
to be nearer the Park than Claring Cross,
and In fact to be in the best part of May
fair. a part Of London in which it is not
easy To establish Il pied.u-tsrrc on reason
able terms. They were really very uu-
lucky-they just missed a charming little
bijou residence over a saddler's shop in
South Audley Street, what in prosaic lan-
guage is called an upper part. but. o IL
sidering the tiny rooms, the bud lookout.
the narrow passages and stupid twisted
stairs, it is not very likely that Mrs. Traf-
ford would have consented to change her
smart commodious house in the best part
OF Blankhanpton, for which she paid q
modest fifty pounds ii year, for the bijou
residence in South Audley Street at Il
yearly rental of two hundred pounds.
At all events she did nothing of the
kind: after thoroughly searching over all
the best districts in town. after intery ew-
ing innumerable h~ouse-agents, worrying
n greater number of caretakers, visiting
quite a quantity OF flats large and small,
and generally having an uncommonly
good time. Mrs. Trafford and Julia went
back to Blankhampton aud tool up their
quarters again at No. Z st. Ewes. ''Well,
| had lot quite decided to %leave.'' Mrs.
Trntford explained deliberately during the
next week or two, Though ] had more
than half Il mind to live in London in
future rs being nearer my young people.
or at least as being always a likely and
convenient centre for all of us. But we
did not see anything that we liked, and
dear Laura and Madge begged us so not
to leave ST. Ewes till the regiment goes,
that Julia and | thought we would let the
question rest for the present, Besides
that" Mrs. Tratford added. with the little
candid laugh that hitherto had stood her
in such good stead, ~ am not a million.
aire, but IL poor little widow who has just
had two smart weddings 10 drain her
purse, aud really house rent in London
means quite an income-two hundred a
year for u little hole | could not get my
piano into"
So the question remained in abeyance
and Mrs. Tratrord and her eldest flower
| took up the thread of their Did life once
more, aud the people who had said dis
agreeable things about burning boats had,
OF course, nothing further to say.
But although life in Blankhampton is
of the dullest. and you may go dreaming
on from day to day until you begin to
wonder for what reason you We're born
and why You go on living, to Il woman O.
Mrs. Trafford's temperament there is al
ways more than enough to fill up the day
She had her house, as heretofore, all he,
old society excepting such as she had
judicionsly weeded out), and agreat many
new friends whose acquaintance she had
made after or about the time of the two
smart marriages which had so drained hel
purse. And in Blankhampton, like &
great many other provincial towns, the
keeping up of society is a very serious
matter. Almost any afternoon between
the hours Of three and five you may see q
dozen old ladies' sallying forth in all the
glory of their best bonncts, holding In
their pale kid-covered fingers a resplen
dent card-case. II it is n silver one, sc
much the better, or il may be of carved
ivory bailing from China or of ivory and
silver from the far off Indian strand.
Failing these comes in the useful AM
highly ornamented mothcr-o'-pearl which
is sometimes made III with little squares
of shining green substance, some kind OF
shell, ! fancy. All! dear, dear. 1t is al
very funnyl
Mrs. Trafford was great on calling, AM
she was also one OF those little friendly
women who make n virtue of calling out
side the regulation hours at some houses
that is to say. And also she had, besides
her house and her acquaintance to keeE
up, a great aud serious object in life, al
object which was she very well knew not
to be entered on lightly or with ~frivolity,
an object which in plain language was tc
get her remaining flower, Julia, suitably
| settled in life.
III the case of Mrs. Marcus Oxford mat
tiers had arranged themselves-and Lady
Stnunton's marriage had undoubtedly
come about by reason of the other: but
with Julia it was rather different. Julia
was no longer in her first youth, and she
was not pretty, neither was she IN inter
esting or particularly accomplished younl
lady. She sans IL little, it is true, but
somehow, her singing did not seem tt
"catch on" with the Blankhampton PEG
pie, who rather pride themselves on theil
taste for music. MOI was Julia Traffort
popular i'll the town; she had a high-pitch
ed somewhat cracked voice and a laugh
that did not ring true.
Still Mrs. Trafford did not despair
Julia had inherited all these characters
tics from her and they had not in he,
case prevented her from making "a mattel
which was a really brilliant one, and
moreover. she had since the two smar1
marriages, come to feel herself quite lkt
a general to whom defeat is an unknown
quantity.