The Mysteries of Montreal | Page 8

she received his mistress into her house as before, rather than make
public his heartless conduct. Truly such an angel never received such
heartless treatment, or was so little appreciated. It broke her heart
however, and over her grave Dombey resolved to cast Mrs. Trotter off
forever, and send her away from the city. He accordingly arranged with
her to take an annual allowance and go to New York with her family,
vowing that he could no longer endure her presence, which was grown
distasteful to him.
This did not at all suit Mrs. Trotter, who had now hoped to become the
legal mistress of the Dombey mansion. But all her tears were of no
avail, the bitter pangs of remorse were tearing Dombey's bosom, and he
would hear of nothing but, her immediate departure for the United
States. He determined that however he might have blighted the life of
the wife whose excellent qualities he had only now begun to appreciate,
nothing should stand in the way of her children's advancement; and the
voice of a scandal having already been heard concerning Mrs. Trotter,
he felt that her immediate departure was a necessity. She argued and
entreated, but it was of no avail, and she accordingly made the best of
her case and got from him a liberal allowance. Hers was not of a nature
to reform, however; she went from bad to worse, and finally took to
smoking opium as a means to relieve her gnawing conscience, ending
her days prematurely.
Dombey survived her but a short time. He tried hard to make amends
for the past by increased attention to the children of his late wife, but he
never fully recovered himself, and finally succumbed to a wasting fever,
superinduced by late hours and immoderate drinking. To his last hour
his conscience smote him at the triple wrong he had inflicted on his
children, his natural daughter, and his confiding wife.

CHAPTER III.
The Bag Baby.
Madame Charbonneau gave such entire satisfaction as _Maîtresse
d'Hôpital_ that I purchased her interest in the lease of the house, and
employed her permanently as my aide-de-camp. In a short time we
established quite a reputation, and applications for accommodation
poured in from all quarters.
One bitter cold day towards the end of March a lady and gentleman
arrived by the morning train from the United States. The lady was
apparently about thirty-five years of age, while the gentleman might
have been from five to ten years her senior, and, although plainly
attired, they had the appearance of belonging to the better class of
society. The gentleman informed me that they had just arrived from
New York, and had put up at the St. Lawrence Hall; but that his wife
had taken ill unexpectedly, and, hearing that she would be better cared
for in my house than at the Hall, he wished, if possible, to secure rooms
and professional attendance. The house being rather full at the time,
Madame Charbonneau was obliged to give her the nurse's room (which
contained two beds) till some of the other rooms should become vacant;
this her husband readily assented to, and arranged to call in the
afternoon and bring the necessary funds, which I always made it a point
to collect in advance. The lady seeming tired and exhausted, I
recommended her to divest herself of her clothing and retire to bed,
which she accordingly did, and soon fell into a deep sleep. In the
afternoon the gentleman returned, and, having settled the bills, went
upstairs to see his wife who was just then partaking of some light
refreshment. He expressed himself well pleased with our arrangements,
and said he would call regularly to see how his wife progressed.
That night as the nurse was about to retire, she was surprised to find,
under the coverlet of her bed, an enormous rag baby, as large as a child
of two years old, dressed completely, with shoes, bonnet and veil. Her
astonishment can easily be imagined as she held it up to the light and

carefully examined it; then, laughing heartily, she turned to Mrs.
Roberts (my patient) and said:
"My! who could have put this baby in my bed?" On which that lady
replied with evident embarrassment that the baby was a doll belonging
to her niece, and that, imagining the bed to be unoccupied, she had, in
unpacking her trunk, placed it there for the sake of convenience, and
apologized for being so careless. The nurse made no reply, but, being
of a jovial disposition, danced with it into the other rooms, exclaiming,
much to the chagrin of the lady, that she had found a beautiful baby in
her bed. The other patients wondered what it was, and whence it came,
and appealed to me