E-text prepared by Katherine Ward, Mary Meehan, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/americana) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustration. See 36490-h.htm or 36490-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/36490/pg36490-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/36490/36490-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See http://www.archive.org/details/reconstructedmarr00barriala A RECONSTRUCTED MARRIAGE by AMELIA E. BARR Frontispiece by Z. P. Nikolaki New York Dodd, Mead and Company 1910 Copyright, 1910, by Dodd, Mead and Company Published, October, 1910 The Quinn & Boden Co. Press Rahway, N.J. TO MY DEAR FRIEND MRS. HARRY LEE THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED CONTENTS I A PROSPECTIVE MOTHER-IN-LAW II PREPARING FOR THE BRIDE III THE BRIDE'S HOMECOMING IV FOES IN THE HOUSEHOLD V BAD AT BEST VI THE NAMING OF THE CHILD VII THE NEW CHRISTINA VIII A RUNAWAY BRIDE IX THE LAST STRAW X THEODORA MAKES A NEW LIFE XI CHRISTINA AND ISABEL XII ROBERT CAMPBELL GOES WOOING XIII THE RECONSTRUCTED MARRIAGE A RECONSTRUCTED MARRIAGE CHAPTER I A PROSPECTIVE MOTHER-IN-LAW As it was Saturday morning, Mrs. Traquair Campbell was examining her weekly accounts and clearing off her week's correspondence; for she found it necessary to her enjoyment of the Sabbath Day that her mind should be free from all worldly obligations. This was one of the inviolable laws of Traquair House, enunciated so frequently and so positively by its mistress, that it was seldom violated in any way. It was therefore with fear and uncertainty that Miss Campbell ventured to break this rule, and to open softly the door of her mother's room. No notice was taken of the intruder for a few moments, but her presence proving disastrous to the total of a line of figures which Mrs. Campbell was adding, she looked up with visible annoyance and asked: "What do you want, Isabel? You are disturbing me very much, and you know it." "I beg pardon, mother, but I think the occasion will excuse me." "What is the occasion?" "There is something in my brother's room that I feel sure you ought to see." "Could you not have waited until I had finished my work here?" "No, mother. It is Saturday, and Robert may be home by an early train. I think he will, for he is apparently going to England." "Going to England, so near the Sabbath? Impossible! What set your thoughts on that track?" "His valise is packed, and directed to Sheffield; but I think he will stop at a town called Kendal. He may go to Sheffield afterwards, of course."