The Little Vanities of Mrs. Whittaker: A NovelWinter, John Strange
General
The Little Vanities of Mrs. Whittaker: A Novel
Winter, John Strange
Domestic fiction; England -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Married women -- Fiction
The immediate effect of going home again was to make Regina more
convinced than ever that the hussy had a very real and tangible
existence. On the very first day Alfred made haste to catch the earlier
of the two trains by which he had been in the habit of traveling to
town. There was nothing in that circumstance--oh no. He had been away
for a full month, and Regina's opinion of her husband's partner was but
small. He had brought the bulk of the money into the firm, while Alfred
had supplied the major part of the brains, and had, in fact, built up
the business to its present flourishing state; so, of course, there was
nothing in the actual circumstance that Alfred should hurry through his
breakfast so as to catch the earlier train. He fussed and fumed a
little, too, and let fall a word to the effect that he knew he should
find everything at sixes and sevens, and that he wanted to have one or
two things settled before the Chamberlains went away for their autumn
holiday. Regina too, on her side, was naturally extremely busy that
morning. She had to look after her housekeeping, to lay in supplies, to
hold consultations with each of her servants, and to look out a couple
of dresses of slightly more solid material than those which she had worn
at Dieppe--not that she needed them for warmth, for the weather was, as
the weather so frequently is in September, mild even to sultriness. The
sun and the sea air had made the gowns which Regina had taken to Dieppe
appear to her worn and shabby, and she therefore would have to fall back
upon a couple of spring gowns until she could get her new autumn
clothes, the clothes with which she was to win back Alfred. Now, the
hussy had been for some time far from Regina's thoughts, her suspicions
had been lulled to rest, not only by Alfred's devotion, but by his
naturalness of demeanor. In a sort of gush of tenderness toward him she
almost determined that she would do nothing to regain his allegiance;
she would only be herself. Then her tidy eye fell upon a piece of paper
lying on the carpet between Alfred's chair and the door. She went across
the room and picked it up, following the house-wifely instinct which
moves nine women out of ten, and glanced at it to see whether it was
something to keep or something to throw away. It was only a folded sheet
of paper on which was written in a woman's handwriting, 27 Terrisina
Road, St. John's Wood, N. W. For a moment Regina was almost too stunned
to speak; she stared at the paper. Luckily, Julia had already gone down
to that part of the Park called the town to get some flowers with which
to deck the house. All the doubts and suspicions of the past came back
in great waves, and broke cruelly upon Regina's palpitating heart.
There was a hussy! This had been written by the hussy! This was where
the hussy dwelt, 27 Terrisina Road, St. John's Wood, N. W. It was far
removed from the side of London on which the Park was situate; he had
laid his plans carefully and well--or she had.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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