Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1896-08-29
A LUCKY WAIF.

Lady Mildred Arbuthnot would be 10
years of age the following spring. She
was pretty, piquant and in every way
charming, and her parents, who expected
her home from the most select OF conti-
mental "finishing" academies the next
afternoon, congratulated themselves with
reason on the fact that her debut promised
to be an unqualified success
Lady Mildred Arbuthnot however, had
left the select academy some months ago
and her parents would have been consider
ably astonished had they witnessed her
movements tonight.
She stepped out of the express almost as
it touched the London platform and d.
reoted porter to carry her hamper and
dressing case into the adjacent hotel.
When she presented herself at the clerk s
desk, 1t was in the name of Mrs. Ed
wardes that she engaged room, and de-
olaring that she was very tired she gave
orders that she should not be disturbed in
the morning; when she awoke, she said,
she would ring. Alone in her room, with
her hamper and her dressing bag, she
locked the door and burst into tears. Then
she knelt down beside the hamper with
her cheek resting ON it, and slowly, almost
furtively, opened it,
1t was 10 o'clock next day before the
manager inquired whether No. 50 had
breakfasted yet, and he was informed that
the lady was still asleep At 2 he asked
again. There had been suicide In the
hotel the week before, and he had not re-
covered from the shock of 1t. These in
considerable actions leave hotel managers
nervous.
At quarter to 8 he told a chamber
maid to knock and ask for instructions.
She returned with very white face and
said that she could obtain no answer.
"But," added the abigail, there's very
strange sound in the room, sir, that there
is. don't know what to make Of it,"
"a sound! What sort of soundp'
"Well," stammered the girl, tits for all
the world like baby"
"Good Lord'' gasped the manager, and
he ran up stairs three steps at time,
with the chambermaid behind him. The
room was empty when they went in--void,
that is to say, Of Mrs. Edwardes, though
she had omitted to take her hamper with
her. 1t stood in the middle of the floor,
and from its depths issued faint, fretful
ory--the cry the servant had described.
"Open it,"
She unfastened 1t with trembling fingers
and disclosed female infant about 3
| weeks old, beautifully dressed and lying
on satin cushion, with her feeding bottle
| beside her. Half Of the contents had been
imbibed, but the tube had slipped from
the baby's lips, and the cry had evidently
| been whimper Of expostulation.
"Good Lord" exclaimed the manager,
"this is case for the police! Send for q
| constable at oncel'
But the constable could throw very lit
tie light upon the occurrence when he
came. He observed that 1t was rum
start" and talked about the workhouse.
1t was the chambermaid who proposed OK
aiming the linen to see If 1t bore any in
itials, and, though there were none, it was
owing to her suggestion that they discov.
cred at go early stage the only distin.
| gushing mark that existed. This was a
mole, shaped like pear, just below the
left shoulder.
The sensation was not long lived. Com.
pared to the suicide, it fell very fiat in
deed. "Mrs. Edwardes'' was never traced
nobody remembered very distinctly what
she looked like. She was very young, very
elegant and very fashionable. Those were
| all the details that were forthcoming, and
/ there are thousands of women answering
| to such description in London. Her do
serted child found the destination that the
! policeman had mentioned when his eyes
FIRST fell upon her, the workhouse, anG
Lady Mildred Arbuthnot was welcomed
with effusion by her parents and made {
1 lwtl1}n,,t mo into cOciatv Tho Glory
of her fall and shame was locked In hel
own breast. Nobody guessed, nobody sus
pected, nobody had any idea.
The child was made much of in tn,
workhouse-not for the mystery connected
with her, because workhouse teens will
such mysteries on account Of tn,
beauty she developed and her dainty, i'm
perious little ways. There was q nurs,
there "a cousin Of the matron's), gaining
experience in midwifery, who took to hel
especially, and Nurse Mathers and tn,
i matron used to dress the mite out Of theil
own pockets so that, although she wa
nurtured In the warehouse, she nevel
4 wore the odious clothes When she was
years old, she could easily have been adopt
cd by some wealthy people, but the guard
ians, with an intelligence that deserved
publicity, refused their sanction, and q
she remained in her squalid surrounding
for six months more.
AT the end Of those six months Nurs'
Mathers retired from the workhouse to es
tablish private Practice and she took tn,
child with her, dispensing with the for
/ inality Of asking the guardians consent.
The wnif had been named Lilly Brown
and almost the earliest Of Miss Brown
focollections was humble house off tn,
Pentonville road, where she lived with I
kindly faced little woman whom she callet
"Auntie." From there she was sent Il
school, and as the nurses practice grew
and improved till she sometimes received
as much as ego or $50 q month for case
60 did Lily Browns education thrive, un
til, by the time she was ~ years Of age
she was lovely and accomplished young
4 lady admirably qualified to be governes
which was high and noble destiny.
! Il was as governsss that she startet
her career, though her appearance was II