The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-05-10

| flesh and spirit to her worthy instructresses
At last, having in an evil hour concocted plo,
against her honored preceptrsss' false curls
thereby bringing confusion and dismay upon
the whole-corporate body of the establishment
Miss Kitty was privately and coolly dismissed
with short lecture, and long letter to her
guardians, in lieu of the diploma usually award
ed in due season to the inmates of - Semi
nary. This letter, ON her unlooked-for return
she threw into the lap of Laura, with a laugh
more loud and free than any which had ever
disgraced the echoes of Miss B. g establishment
Surprised disheartened, and half angry, Mrs
Hope had lifted her troubled face from the let
ter to reproye her giddy sister; but before her
lips had opened, Kitty hastily turned away hel
| flushed face, not before a hot tear had dropped
on her sisters hand. From that moment, Las
I IN never despsired Of the needless girl. The
next instant, true, Kitty's eyes were seeking
hers again, roguish and defiant as ever; and
the sauey lips began piquant justification
which Mrs. Hope quietly cut short, by deci
sive tap of her sisterly fingers.
Under Laura's private tuition, away from
temptation, bad example, and unreasonable re
straint, Kitty softened into a comparatively stu
dious, well-behaved young lady. Her pride had
been deeply wounded in her dismissal from
school; but that it had grieved her kind Laura
had been the bitterest drop in the cup; and
Kitty, who had never shed tear since, in child
hood, her pet spaniePs death was bewailed
cried herself to sleep one night, and awoke the
next morning to more thoughtfulness than had
found room in her whole previous life. Reso
lutions to make scholar of herself, and to i'm
itate her generous sisters example of selfde
nying, all-comprehending goodness, were no
ephemeral things with the young girl; and she
gradually grew into graceful, docile creature
yet with wayward instincts that oftener worked
trouble to herself and others.
During the six months preceding her intro
duction here, she had begun to mingle in so
ciety," if the cheerful, unceremonious circle Of
! friends, which Laura Hope drew around her
might be comprehended under that doubtful
term. Her brusque beauty attracted many ad
| mirers, whose attentions served as an unfailing
fund for her merciless brother, who had lately
also taken up his residence under their sisters
roof. AS for Kitty, she made sport of her fiat
tercrs and 1utterers. both absent and present
mimicking them behind their backs, and laugh
| ing in their very faces at the least symptom of
sentimentality. Nothing mps the bud of Gloves
young dream" so suddenly and surely, as 9
wellaimed laugh of derision. Kitty Judged
with woman's unperverted instinct of the
depth of soul possessed by the specimens Of hui
mainly that environed her, though she was often
unnecessarily unmerciful in holding up the mir
ror to their imperfections.
"Tut, tut!" Esq. Hope would say, with
knitting brows, and lips twitching in spite Of
his determination not to smile. "Tut, child
A man with six thousand year is no mere
laughing stock, if he be little soft in the up
per story
81 didn't laugh at his six thousand year
please you,' Kitty would archly reply. "His
income is a charming thing! Pity it didn't
lack the dppcndage! Heighol"
ado as you would be done by," Laura would
counsel, with calm look Of something like
reproof.
"Certainly, my dear conscientious sister /
would not condemn my worst enemy to the
torture of resisting such temptation to laugh
as the very thought of that si1-inch standing
collarl" and fresh burst would follow.
Then, if Laura still looked serious, she
would put one arm around her neck, murmur-
ing, "Oh wish I had been cut out by the
same pattern with you, darling!" and away
she would bound to her piano, singing, "Pd
be butterfly"
| Laura Hope was one of those rare beings,
made of sunshine and substantial energy, as
surely predestined blessings to the great world
as the glittering, cheering, dashing rivers that
90 bounding over its surface. No one could
look into her face without feeling his heart
warmed. Children learned TO look for her in
their walks, and to take in q store of happiness
for the day in smile caught from her face,
even if they received not word from I" the
sweet lady" Care-worn mothers and crusty
fathers grew cheerful and social in the at
mosphere her footsteps invoked. From the attic
of the poor artist from the cellar of the toll
ing seamstress from the bare-walled chamber
Of the decrepid pauper from the low suburban
I Il II Al
struggling for bread from the downy pillows,
where the neglected young wife buried her ach-
| ing head from the chamber where the over
taxed brain of the business man sought in
vain to drive the care-spectres for few short
hours-a blessing went up to the stars of every
silent night, for the good angel, Laura Hope.
Not only that she was ever ready to succor the
distressed and suffering others with larger
means have done that, on far grander scale
than could the wife of an enterprising, yet far
from rich, lawyer. But she was bountiful in
sympathy; and oh, how little of that true coin
of the heart is scattered among Heavens strick-
| en- ones
Her motherly cares, however, were most
warmly bestowed upon the clerks and students
connected with her husbands office. Far from
throwing aside, in accordance with the almost
universal example, the invisible links of re-
sponsibility that bound to her these transient
members Of her husbands coterie she drew
them to her heart with a cordialty that made
them her friends for life. She possessed, be-
yond all others, the gift Of that tone and look
which touch the most secret spring in the heart
of young man. 1t seemed the most natural
thing for one to confde in Laura Hope, after
brief acquaintance as he perhaps never had
conhded in even his own mother. She had a
balm for every wound, a word of sweet counsel
for every dilemma, and q clue to every laby
| rinth
She has no children, and so she is ereyy
oody's dunty!" once said young student of
one like Laura whose love still keeps thou
sand hearts fresh. Had Mrs. Hope also nestled
IN some green nook of a country village, in
stead OF the sun-scorched heart of a crowded
city, she too would have been in name as she
was IN realty, everybody's auntyl"
mere Is little need to describe her, or to tell
her age Tor none among her numerous friends
couIo ever decide whether she was strictly beau
uiul or not; nor, of the uniformed, how old
she was. 80 the reader, too, may guess.
One trait, characteristic of our Laura, was,
that, though perpetually busted with the little
and great plans for the pleasure and improve
ment OF others, she never could be brought to
see through, much less to participate in, what
| the world calls mdnourrtng. Innocent as a
babe of even wish to pry into the sacred re-
cesses of the hearts about her, far more so of
a design to regulate them, she never could
credit the suspicion of such thing. For in
stance, when some halfroguish, halfmalicious
hint was carried to her, to the effect that Mrs
Hope was not patronizing all those fine young
gentlemen for nothing, with such pretty sister
under her wing" she opened her smiling eyes
wide with incredibly for moment, and say
ing, simply, "How ridiculous! and Kitty such