New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1852-09-06
THE THREE SISTERS.


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THE THREE SISTERS.
IN -FOUR CHAPTERS.-CHAPTER I.
Gabrielle, you should not stay out so late
alone"
at isn't late, sister dear, for summers
evening The church clock struck eight just as
turned into the little path across the field.
The first speaker, who was the eldest. raised
her head from her work, and, looking at Gabri
ellie, said:
"For you it is too late. You are not we'll,
Gabrielle. You are quite flushed and tired.
| Where have you been -
"Nowhere but in the village Gabrielle
said.
She paused a moment, then added, rather
hurriedly:
81 was detained by poor sick woman went
to see. You don't know her, Joanna, she has
Just come here
&c And who is she - Joanna asked.
"She is a widow woman, not young, and very
poor She spoke to me in the road the other
day, and have seen her once or twice since.
She had heard our name i'll the village and to-
| night | promised her that you or Bertha would
60 and call on her She has been very unhappy,
poor thing. You will go, sister" :"
'Certainly. You should have told me before.
Go, now, and take off your bonnet. You have
walked too quickly home on this hot mig ght.''
Another lady entered the room just as Gabri-
ellie was leaving it, and addressed her almost as
the first had done:
"You are late, Gabrielle. What has kept
you out so long:"
Joanna will tell you,'' Gabrielle answered.
81 have only been finding some work for you,
sister," and with smile she went away.
They were two stern, cold women-Joanna and
Bertha Vaux. They lived together-they two
and Gabrele-in dark, old fashioned house,
close to a little village, in one of the southern
counties of England. 1t was a pretty, pictur
esque village, most English villages are,
with little clusters of white washed, -twined
cottages sprinkled through it, and q little
rough stone country church, covered to the
very stop Of the spire so thickly with ivy that
it looked like a green bower. Here and there
were scattered q few pleasant houses Of the bet
ter sort, standing apart in sunny gardens, and
scenting the air around with the smell of their
' sweet flowers.
But the house in which Joanna, and Bertha
and Gabrielle lived was always gloomy and dark
and cold. 1t was a square brick house, witt
damp, unhealthy evergreens planted in front
upon which the sun never shone-summer OF
winter; the flags which paved the front of the
door and the steps of the door were greened over
! with cheerless moss; and fungi grew up in the
seams of the pavement. The windows, will,
their thick, black clumsy frames, almost all
faced the North, so that the cold, dark rooms
were never lighted up with sunshine; but looked
even more dreary in the summer time, with the
empty, freless CRATES, than on wintry days. Yet
] the house seemed to suit we'll the tastes of the
two elder of the Misses Eaux.
1t had stood empty for some years before they
took it; for its last occupier had committed sui,
eide in one Of the rooms-it was just the houst
for such thing to have happened in-and the
superstitious horror which the event created il
the neighborhood, coupled with the dark and
cheerless appearance of the house, were the
causes why it remained so long unlet and ST
much neglected.
J, About six years ago, the Misses Vaux hat
J.. come, quite strangers, to the village; and, in
short time were settled as tenants of the lionel,
house. They were young women then-no
J, more than three or four and twenty; but al
e e ready grave. severe and stern They dressed
always in mourning, and rarely was smile seel
II on their cold lips; but they spent their time al
oi most entirely in performing acts of charity, il
visiting the sick, and in making clothes for tn
e poor. For miles round they were known ant
y, ,s looked up to with mingled reverence and awe
But theirs was q strange, soulless charity-mor
g like the performance of heavy penance than Q
" acts of love.
lS There was mystery about their antecedents
No one knew whence they came, or who the
were; they had neither relations nor friends
IN they lived alone in their gloomy house, and on
n; N at long intervals--sometimes of many months
= did they receive even single letter. They wcr
n II TWO sad, weary women, to whom life seemed t
US bring no pleasure, but to be only a burder
which it was their stern duty to bear uncom
plainingly for a certain number Of years.
1,s Gabrielle-the beautiful, sunny -natured Ga
.e brielle-was not with them when they first cam
eV bH to the village; but three years ago she ha
I'd joined them, and the three had lived togethe
no since She was then about ffteen-a brgh
q. Il, joyous, beautiful creature, without though
- of sadness in her, or the faintest shadow of til
gloom that rested Oh her sisters. Even nov
Ed although she had lived for three years in til
chilling atmosphere that surrounded them, 81
lna l0s was still unchanged, almost even as much
m. child--as gay, thoughtless, and full of joy,
when she first came. 1t treminded one of a snoy
c drop blooming in the winter, forcing itse
11s through the very midst of the surroundi1
snow, to see how she had grown up with til
" cold, wintry environment. But the gloon
house looked less gloomy now that Gabriel
sd lived in it. There was one little room, with
window looking to the south Zone of three tn
% had sunny aspect), which she took to be Ii
IS own, and there she would sit for many houl
by working by the open window, singing joyousl
v with the sunlight streaming over her, and I
- breath of the sweet flowers that she had plant
II in q garden as close under her window as
sun would come, stealing deliciously into
red. red room. 1t quite pleasant little nook, wi
ses na' a view far over undulating hills and yell
ow waving corn fields, which sparkled and glitter
Iss like plains of moving gold in the deep brig
ns a rays Of the setting sun. And Gabrielle, sitti
,19s .hs here and gazing on them, roaming ale
II among them, was quite happy and light -hea
T-S ed. Even her stern sisters were thawed a
AN softencd by her presence; and, think, felt
lied much love for her as it was in their nature
pro- feel for any one, for, indeed, it imposs
tsr toresist altogether her cheering influence, VIII
bh spread itself over every thing around her W
u the warmth of sunshine.
On this evening on which our tale begins, a
M fer some days previous to it, Gabrielle had BIT
rice graver and quieter than she often was
-, joined her sisters now in the common sttil
room; ; and, with her work in her hand, sat do
~ ~ beside them near the window, but she answc
D. their few questions about her evening ram
IA with only feigned gayety, as though she ,
"a occupied with other thoughts, or was too wet
al Al to talk and, presently as the twilight gathe
VI VI q round them, they oil sank into silence,
,ss one window looked serosa the road IN which