Evening Hours

by Lady Barker

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876 ...I am so glad to have you to talk to!" she said at length, as she wiped the last tears from her spoilt face, made blotchy and swollen by the weeping. "You know, Miss Winnie, when I saw you before, I did not like to say anything about our great trouble, ---with mamma, I mean; but now you have seen her like that to-day, I may tell you everything, and you will not tell anybody else, will you?" "Certainly not, dear, unless my aunt should wish to of course you would not mind her; and most probably your mamma will be confiding in her at this moment, and telling her everything." Arabella then began, and told the old, old story of a gradual, almost unconscious, decline from sobriety to confirmed drunkenness, --horrible expression to use in reference to a lady! Yet let the plain, honest truth be Mrs. Longton was but one of many, many lady drunkards, who cause shame and misery in households of refinement and wealth throughout the land. Winnie listened with the fullest sympathy to the child's pitiful tale of bodily and mental suffering, --of the distress which she was now feeling every day concerning her wandering brothers, and of her dismay in looking into the future. "Of course we cannot stay here much longer," she said in conclusion. "We have no money coming from anybody, we have nothing to sell, and it seems as if I shall never get engaged to play unless I would go to low, cheap and oh, I can't bear low people and places! I would rather sell flowers in the streets, amongst gentlefolks who would speak softly and kindly to me. Of course Jane cannot let us stay here much longer, although I know she is so sorry for us. But we cannot expect that her husband will be working to feed us and give us nice clean lodgi...

806 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2012

About the author

Born Mary Anne Stewart in Spanish Town, Jamaica, she was the eldest daughter of Walter Stewart, Island Secretary of Jamaica. She was educated in England, and in 1852 married Captain George Robert Barker of the Royal Artillery, with whom she would have two children. When Barker was knighted for his leadership at the Siege of Lucknow, Mary Anne became "Lady Barker". Eight months later Barker died. On 21 June 1865, Mary Anne Barker married Frederick Napier Broome. The couple then sailed for New Zealand, leaving her two children in England. The couple's first child was born in Christchurch in February 1866, but died in May. By this time, they had moved to the sheep station Steventon, which Broome had partnered with H. P. Hill to buy. They remained there for three years; they lost more than half their sheep in the winter of 1867, and in response Broome sold out and the couple returned to London. Both Mary Anne and her husband then became journalists. Still calling herself "Lady Barker", Mary Anne Broome became a correspondent for The Times, and also published two books of verse, Poems from New Zealand (1868) and The Stranger from Seriphos (1869). In 1870, she published her first book Station Life in New Zealand, a collection of her letters home. The book was reasonably successful, going through several editions and being translated into French and German. Over the next eight years, Lady Barker wrote ten more books, including A Christmas Cake in Four Quarters (1871), a sequel to Station Life entitled Station Amusements in New Zealand (1873), and First Lessons in the Principles of Cooking (1874). This last title led to her being appointed Lady Superintendent of the National Training School of Cooking in South Kensington. When Frederick Broome was appointed Colonial Secretary of Natal in 1875, Lady Barker accompanied him there. Broome's subsequent colonial appointments had him traveling to Mauritius, Western Australia, Barbados, and Trinidad. Drawing on these experiences, Lady Barker published A Year's Housekeeping in South Africa (1880) and Letters to Guy (1885). Frederick Broome was knighted on 3 July 1884, and thereafter Mary Anne called herself "Lady Broome". She published the last of her 22 books, Colonial Memories under this name. After Sir Frederick Broome's death in 1896, Lady Broome returned to London, dying there on 6 March 1911.

From Wikipedia