Married people -- Fiction; Mothers-in-law -- Fiction
To those who did not know Robert Campbell, he seemed at this time
indifferent and unfeeling. In reality he was consumed by the two
passions that had taken possession of him--the finding of his wife and
son, and the making of money to keep up the search for them. He spent
his days at the works, his evenings were devoted to interviewing his
detectives, writing them instructions, or reading their reports.
Shabby-looking men, in various disguises, haunted the hall and library
of Traquair House, and every single one of them gave Mrs. Campbell a
fresh and separate attack of anger. They were naturally against her,
they believed everything wrong said of her, they talked slyly to the
servants, and would scarcely answer her questions; they trespassed on
her rights, and disobeyed her orders; and if she made a complaint of
their behavior to her son, he looked at her indignantly and walked
silently away. Speech, which had been her great weapon, and her great
enjoyment, lost its power against the smouldering anger in her son's
heart, and the speechless insolence of his "spying men."
Very soon after his sorrow had found him out he locked every drawer and
closet in the rooms that had been Theodora's. It was a necessary action,
but he had a bitter heartache in its performance. The carefully folded
garments, with their faint scent of lavender, held so many memories of
the woman he longed to see. The knots of pale ribbons, the neckwear of
soft lace! Oh, how could such things hurt him so cruelly? In one drawer
of her desk he found the stationery she had begged her own money to buy.
She had not even taken the postage stamps. That circumstance set him
thinking. She was leaving England, or she would have taken the
stamps--perhaps not--they might have been left for the very purpose of
inducing this belief. Who could tell?
Meantime nothing in the life of Traquair House changed or stopped,
because Robert Campbell's life had been snapped into two parts. Mrs.
Campbell soon recovered her pride and self-confidence. She told all her
callers she "had received measureless sympathy, and as for her enemies,
and what they said, she just washed her hands of them--poor, beggarly
scribblers, and such like."
Isabel's behavior was a nearer and more constant annoyance. She spent
the most of her time in her own room with maps and guidebooks and
writing, and the pleasure she derived from these sources was a pleasure
inconceivable to her mother. "You are past reckoning with, Isabel," she
said fretfully one day, "what on earth are you busy about?"
"I am planning routes of travel, mother, putting down every place to
stop at, what hotel to go to, what is worth seeing, and so on. I have
four routes laid out already. I am hoping some day, when I have made all
clear, you will go with me."
"Me! Me go with you! Not while I have one of my five senses left me."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account