The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-24
CHAPTER X.

0 Romer was concerned the success of the venture was immedate and com plete. He encountered the little house al Wood Green, the neat garden the we'll planned meals and the kindly face of his young wife every night with a certain fresh surprise. They were a recently &C., quired part of his estate Somewhat risk fly he had invested in them. and he meant that they should yield him a certain definite return. Nor was he deceived.
 In a month he could pass a race-eourse, or an array of swathed horses going out 10 the exercise paddock, without quick ening of the pulses He even paid Tor admission one day to the grand stand at the Thorsby spring races and came away without betting. He did this as test case Having won, he could certainly win all along the line His purpose with Caroline his wife, was therefore served.
 Oh, of course, Jacob Romer would do what was right by his wife Small fear of that--only, she must in all matters, great and small submit herself to his imperial judgment as to what was best
 And this Caroline did. And not only for herself, but she so worked upon her fa- ther, the feeble retired postmaster, and her mother, the silent housemistress, that from their lips came no murmur of com plaint Their daughter was married-well married-they told their friends She lived al some instance, Dul cdHlt IeBbiai 1y to see them. No. it was not rich marriage The young man was a well doing lad, and in time would do better. But for the present-well. no doubt 1t took the young folk all their time to make both ends meet.
 All the while Caroline knew no more of her husbands affairs than if she had been the spaniel that yapped at his approach. and then hid from his uplifted cane under rod b1l into leaf Some wives there are who do not wish to know such things-who take bite and sup. hearth fire and clothing purse and payment as their right, wth- out for q moment caring to know aught of the struggles. disappointments, an- guishes, and the long working hours which have produced for them these necessities and luxuries.
 Caroline was not one of these. She would have sympathzed with infinite zeal though with little knowledge, if Jacob had degned to tell her anything. But as he did not, she was quite content to accept everything as just Jacobs goodness" Her world. like the original one after the six days creation, was 'very good"
 Specially was Caroline happy when lit- tie Vida Romer began to grow from baby into q child. She had, of course, all ways loved her daughter-always given her the first place. But she had let her husband see GOT hear1 too much of the small ef-lilke thing who cried but sell dom--but wlien she did. almost so as to rend the ceiling, screaming out her baby angers with clenched battering fists and features wiredrawn into myriad puck CTS
 Now like her parents in Thorsby, Mrs Jacob Romer in the little house out at Wood Green, kept herself to herself. l. 1atx altR kept her baby to herself She had a sub tie sense that men like her husband did not care to be troubled with little red motted morsels. liable 10 perform shrilly unrehearsed vocal music at quite uncer- tain intervals. So if Jacob Romer saw little of his wife coming hone late in the spring gloamings, and going forth early in the keen easterly- blowing mornings, he saw still less of his daughter Vida
 Afterwards he meant (of course) 10 do something for them. But in reality their role was played out when Jacob could deny himself q race-eourse, and the pleas ure of staltng more money than he could afford upon fayorte horse. For the woman and the child personally he cared nothing-at least no more than he did for the cheap workman's watch which enabled him to get to the office in proper time of mornings or the folded foot-rule he carried in his pocket to help him set and gauge his mems work Tools nothing else,
 Then his uncle Jacob Incubus Gorm the First died, and he, Jacob Romer the Sec ond. reigned in his stead. For long time before that. Jacob had been chiefly in Scotland. opening up the new incubus coal and iron mines, in which there were, as he had discovered millions of money snugly packed away in certain rusty elods which were iron, and other black, irreg- 4I ,l,,sEI ,s,.1, face from the splendid coal seams, mid way between the pitmouth and the iron ore.
 If was here, while opening the earth to let out these nuggets of rust and grime that Jacob Romer had his earliest visions of another life. So far his own had only \ meant millions and the ladder to them. But whilst Gorm Castle was building and the Gorm estates were in course of acqui- sitlon, Jacob was brought into contact with several quiet low-voced men of long lineage, from whom the land was slipping away, even SIS the power of pitt and-gallows had gone from their fore fathers. He met their womenfolk also at once proud and infinitely gentle, who had cool way of asserting superiority that made Jacobs soul bristle like a hedgehog. They impressed him, never theless.
 During these months his uncle still lived. He was compelled, therefore to represent himself as an unmarried man. And it chaneed that amongst others he met Miss Georgiana Bunny, the sister of Sir Buleigh Bunny. the impoverished baronet from whom he had purchased some of the Gorm estates, and with whom he was consequently constantly in touch.
 For twenty years Miss Georgiana had been known to all the country as "a most capable woman" She possessed strongly marked traits. a masculine pres ence, and all the brains of the family had been settled exclusively behind her ea- pacious brow and within her well pro- portioned head. At least her only broth- CT, Sir Bunny, had none. This was cer- tainty.
 There is no doubt that Miss Georgiana Bunny attracted the master of Gorm Castle-that is to say, Jacob Romer, very strongly. In her company, listening to her easy. careless, world-wise talk he often forgot the little house at Wood Green, forsaken and neglected and the man wife who never troubled him even with demands for money, or even for his society. Jacob Romer had never had real lady interested in him before, and the newness of the sensation enhanced the pleasure. From that time forth he went no more south to the little home on the edge of Wood Green Waste His foot never crossed the threshold His daugh- ter Vida grew up unknown to him, but for her part puite able to identify her father For his portrait stood on the