The Project Gutenberg eBook, Missing, by Mrs. Humphry Ward

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Title: Missing

Author: Mrs. Humphry Ward

Release Date: July 14, 2004 [eBook #12908]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISSING***

E-text prepared by Andrew Templeton, Juliet Sutherland, Graeme Mackreth,
and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders

MISSING

by

MRS. HUMPHRY WARD

Author of "Robert Elsmere," "Lady Rose's Daughter,"
"The Mating of Lydia," etc.

Frontispiece in Colour by C. Allan Gilbert

[Illustration: _Deeply regret to inform you your husband reported
wounded and missing_]

PART I

MISSING

CHAPTER I

'Shall I set the tea, Miss?'

Miss Cookson turned from the window.

'Yes--bring it up--except the tea of course--they ought to be here at
any time.'

'And Mrs. Weston wants to know what time supper's to be?'

The fair-haired girl speaking was clearly north-country. She pronounced
the 'u' in 'supper,' as though it were the German 'u' in _Suppe_.

Miss Cookson shrugged her shoulders.

'Well, they'll settle that.'

The tone was sharp and off-hand. And the maid-servant, as she went
downstairs, decided for the twentieth time that afternoon, that she
didn't like Miss Cookson, and she hoped her sister, Mrs. Sarratt, would
be nicer. Miss Cookson had been poking her nose into everything that
afternoon, fiddling with the rooms and furniture, and interfering with
Mrs. Weston. As if Mrs. Weston didn't know what to order for lodgers,
and how to make them comfortable! As if she hadn't had dozens of brides
and bridegrooms to look after before this!--and if she hadn't given
them all satisfaction, would they ever have sent her all them
picture-postcards which decorated her little parlour downstairs?

All the same, the house-parlourmaid, Milly by name, was a good deal
excited about this particular couple who were now expected. For Mrs.
Weston had told her it had been a 'war wedding,' and the bridegroom was
going off to the front in a week. Milly's own private affairs--in
connection with a good-looking fellow, formerly a gardener at Bowness,
now recently enlisted in o