| Show o 0 fre bec eec eee seas ebee s cass e aes w I 1 MRS HAROLD STAGG W tt a bw i copyright 18 0 and 1391 by aobert bonner s sons w b 9 ss sa ss CHAPTER 1 there Is only one thing to be none said mrs harold stags as the outcome of some minutes of re daring which she at tapping one ot her feet nervously on the carpet and staring into space with a harassed e slon in her dark blue eyes we must take them in it 13 exceeding 1 ind i yo i to it emma replied her hus band the same dea had occurred to him but he had refrained from putting it into words for be realized that the burden of establishing three orphaned children lr the house would fall almost entirely on his wife the additional expense would be a very mall consideration the important actors in the case were the care wor and responsibility necessary in solved he would doubtless have deemed it his duty to propose the plan himself after a time had his vhf not done so but this spontaneous offer gratified him and moreover confirmed him in the belief that em one of the kindest and most unselfish women in the world it Is your duty harold she said with a somewhat tragic air and what Is your duty Is mine there is so other way of looking at it we must send for them at once so it seems to me he said de start myself to night I 1 hall scarcely be in time for the tun eral but there 11 be a lot 0 things to attended to afterward and the children may have no one whom they can call upon then I 1 can bring them east myself 1 it bill be excessively Incon veni nt of course continued mrs stagg till staring into distance the two boys we can send to boarding school I 1 will write to mr sampson tomor row to see if he has any vacancies for next term I 1 shall have to put them all in the blue suite the bare idea though of having three pairs of muddy boots tramping all over the house on my new carpets and polish ed floors and destroying all the fresh ness of the chintzes and the furniture in my beloved blue suite makes feel positively there s no help for it though that I 1 can see except to insist on their going up the bach stairs she spoke now rapidly and incisively having definitely settled that the children were to be taken in the was bent upon formulating as soon as possible the necessary ar range ments her agile housekeeper s mind foresaw a thousand com t ons which her energy yearned to grapple with and solve why not put eleanor into the spare toom and the two boys into the play room it you think they would in jure the blue suited you could easily make them comfortable there and what would my own children do for a play room I 1 should like to knowd no no I 1 am not going to bave little harold and posie s corn fort interfered with now that every tring Is working smoothly in my nursery in the blue suite the three baldvins baldwins Bald wins will be by themselves in connecting rooms and it they catch anything there will be some chalice of getting them out of the house before the children are exposed parsons the said to the servant who had an the bell I 1 wish you to send nolan referring to the chore man the first thing to morrow morning to inquire why hartnett Haet nett haley have not sent the mattresses for the bedrooms led rooms in the blue suite as they promised mr haley told me him belf she added to her husband that they should be in the bouse a week ago harold stagg was quite content as well as used to leave to his wife the settlement ot all household details he reserved the exercise of his own authority for serious emergencies when it seemed to him that principles were involved the only part he took in the do affairs was to pay the bills with great promptness which he could well afford to do as he was wealthy and had a live and nourish ang business it was a relief to him that emma took such a vital interest in everything appertaining to the adornment and sanitary welfare of their home although they had recently moved into a large and mag establishment the cares inci cent to refurnishing had not been al lowed to harass him mrs stagg had strong convictions in regard to carpets and curtains and ceilings and ados and the other crucial points in house decoration which are so apt to require a husband s judicial determine de aaion before a final choice Is arrived at she was moreover a rigid dis on the subject of plumbing keenly apprehensive of sewer gas and eloquent as to the importance of traps and other appliances for its in none but finished servants were tolerated in her household where everything very thing was conducted with a view to elegance of effect and her eagle ye was swift to detect the smallest infringement of her precise and blab orate domestic rules in appearance he was tall slim and nervous with ane dark eyes vivacious brisk man aers and a rapid utter anc bhe bad ceen married later than many of her contemporaries but she had been ing up for it ever since by her display 0 social energy perceiving that his a was n crossed by domestic details harold stagg began to make for journey only an hour before be bad received a telegram announcing the death of his brother in law silas baldwin the husband ot his deceased later eleanor who had died a dozea years before at the time her young cst child was bora leaving beside anat baby boy another son and a daughter with the same name as her owna chese children had continued to lire in illinois with their father a civil engineer in the employ of a large man concern harold bad not seen them since his sisters funeral though he had never failed to remember his nephews and niece at christmas time and he had duly re calved n acknowledgement of bis S ats which were invariably beral remittances three carefully caie fully penned epistles the handwriting of which had steadly ly improved from year to ear an attack of pneumonia had carried ff silas baldwin harold had not known that he was ill until he re calved the telegram which was signed uy eleanor announcing that her father had died the day before harold knew enough 0 his brother 11 law s affairs to reel confident that silas had left very little if anything in the way of property to begin with silas had been handicapped at the the time of his marriage by gaiu debts contracted by his father who had died s ildeni leading his t feairs in confusion which debts be felt in honor bound to pay then too he had been in the habit of sink ing whatever he could save from his in the development of various patents for he was an inventor ot diverse mechanical appliances no one cc which had proved profitable har old had on more than one occasion both since and previous to his sister s death advanced him money lor this purpose he liked and respected his brother in law although they were but slightly acquainted and there was lit tie in common between them in point ft tastes but harold s strict sense of rectitude had been early attracted by the resolute stand which silas had taken as to the necessity of repaying what his father owed and he had teen willing to believe that some day his sister s husband would devise a machine that would be worth a mint of money harold had himself found it an easy matter to mal e money or ither rither r his efforts to do so had been early crowned with success which was chiefly due to his own sagacity and strict attention to business in the year of his sisters marriage he had organized a banking house which to day was one of the most prominent and prosperous firms in new york city by a little computation he had 1 aured that eleanor must by this time bo about eighteen little silas fourteen and harold his namesake ria ia photographs of them had been re for several years so that they must have grown beyond recognition his own two children were mere in fonts and the introduction into his fo of his nephews and niece would confront him with all sorts of educational problems that he had not expected to face tor another decade but harold stagg was not the sort of man to balk when a resolution had been taken or to let himself be wor ried by apprehensions of future biffl curties moreover he 1 new that here again he would be able to rely upon his wife she was sure to have de aided views on the various quest lors would present themselves al in mr simpsons Simp sons boarding school she had suggested a happy i method of dealing with the boys doubtless she would be able to settle other points as they arose with equal facility accordingly he ensconced himself comfortably in the smoking compart nent of the train and lit his cigar with a tranquil wind thinking with self congratulatory fondness of his ear cear c emma from whom be had not been parted more than half a dozen days in the seven wears they had been married what a fortunate fellow he was to have such a wife she was so energetic so kind so wrapped in and then so clever too and such j delightful hostess sprightly viva cious amusing when he had offered myself to her although he admired her ability and believed her to be at he bad not expected to be come so happy she was not exact ly the style of woman he had pictured to himself his better halt would be in his more days ere he bad made money and when he was living in modest lodging a quiet and some t hat sentimentally disposed bachelor he had been a great deal of a reader tien of poetry especially and in forested in pictures and music and it had delighted him to dream of a domestic hearth and cheered by the presence of one who would sympathize with and encourage mm in artistic tastes the memory of this it he ever thought of it did not disturb him he was contentedly chappy bis business ran smoothly and prosperously he enjoyed his fine es and the consideration they gave him in the social world if emmas tastes were not precisely similar to his own she certainly took 10 stand against them on the con arary she was perpetually surprising him on christmas and his birthday with presents of rare illustrated edi alons in costly bindings that she had selected belec ted with the aid of the broksell boo ksell er and she was prompt to applaud whatever he sent home in the picture line with such gratifying thoughts of Ms home as companions harold dined in spite of bla mournful errand and having finished the half bottle of champagne he had ordered and smoked another cigar he turned in and slept soundly in thirty four hours from the time of starting he alighted from the train if the small manufacturing town zihere his sisters family lived which was on a branch line it was a place ot some five or six thousand inhabit seemed bustling he no as jie drove along from the tation what to be a town hall and a public library an academy 0 lucre was water power and on favor able sites appeared a row of factories there were in the newer portion of the town and around them clustered a jials dozen lanes of tenement houses beyond where there was more sug bestlin of country in the surround bags were the residences most of them old fashioned farm houses though here and there queen anne old colonial edifices had taken the place of the ancient order of things here had evidently been the town or village before manufactures rad invaded it and the commingling of old and new had produced the ef act of transition but the gardens and stretches ot a were n et blotted out and the air was of the perfume of ae tica boms in response to hanjis request aft be driven to mr baldwin s house the lank individual whose vehicle he haa engaged eyed him with an air of coa doling curiosity and said under ahli breath as though the corpse might still be within hearing the funeral was yesterday yes I 1 supposed so it was decidedly a rel et to harold that without any faiet on hi own part he had escaped the ceremony he had telegraphed his niece that he should start at once might you be related to the pro aired his conductor en cou raged by the promptness ot the deply bor an instant harold was puzzled then he remembered hat his brother n la v had been connected wita the tac ity of one of the western col leges for a few deais as an instructor in pussies and mechanics hence doubtless the to his u he married my sister he an sw ered I 1 w ant to know said the man I 1 want to 1 now he repeated div ing a flick to the baw boned animal he was driving which in point of many years and anatomy was quite in keep arg with himself pity now they coulden couldn t have waited for you the professor Is planted yonder be added pointing with his whip across the fields t other side of th river may be you d like to drive round that ay he said reining in his horse ith i sudden jerk tain t more than a hinlle off your beat no I 1 m la a hurry to see the liv ing you can t do much for a man after he s in the ground he added philosophically 1 i don t know but what you re right mister I 1 never was a great hand at visiting graveyards myself tidy flace though ours git up sandy the gentleman s in a hurry I 1 suppose in this hot weather taint easy to keep em he continued wishing ap patently ly to find a satisfactory exola nation for what would have tc him a breach of courtesy in the ab sence of extenuating circumstances to be continued |
