The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-04-26

lOCeA.NV2A1liy ~ hno QO0r;. out either she 0l<
noe hear, or did not choose to answer, ana
they dared not enter Hithest pssaasssaen.
| At last, one OF them went to Hsmish
| feeling instinctivelY that, If any one could
venture to intrude unbidden, It would be
the foster-brOther of Nellie, and said:
The mistress, God help her! is just
drowned with the sorrow, and won't even
answer when we call. Hamish, a-bouchal
couldn't you manage to go in, just by acct.
dent like, and say something or other to
give turn to her thoughtsf"
"Give turn to her thoughts - said
1 Hamish, Garnstily; give a turn to he,
take It easy! Hasn'tth woman lost husband
and child, to say nothing of the old lord,
who was all as one to her as her own father
and isn't she going, moreover, to be turned
out of house and home, and sent adrift upon
the wide worlda and you talk of giving q
turn to her thoughts, as if it was the tooth
ache she was troubled with, or a wasp that
had stung her I"
GAS you please, Mr.. Hoity -toity," said
the girl, angrily; I" I,only thought that, as
you were a bit of a pet like, on account of
Our young mistress, you might have ventured
on the liberty. Not having set up in that
line myself, 1 cannot, of course, attempt to
NEEDLE in the matter"
ButSthough Hamish had spoken roughly,
his heart was very sore, for all that, over
the sorrows of his lonely mistress.
:. He waited until Cathleen had vanished in
ashutf, and then, going quietly to the study
door, knocked softly for admission.
But Mrs. Nettervillc gave NO sign, and,
after knocking two three times in vain,
he opened the door gently, and looked in.
The room was naturally gloomy one,
being paneled in black oak but Hamish
felt as if it never could have looked before
SO gloomy as it did that moment. Half
study, half oratory as it was, Mrs. Meter
vile had spent here many long hour of
lonely and impassiOned prayer, what time
her husband and her father-in-law were
fighting the battles of their royal and most
ungrateful master. A tall crucifix, carved,
like the rest of the furniture, in black oak,
stood, therefore, on a sort of prie-dieu Mt the
farther end of the room, and near it was u
table, arranged in desk -fashion, at which
she had been in the habit of transacting the
business of her household.
Room and prie-dieu, crucitix and table
Hamish had them all by heart already.
Here, in his baby days, he had been used
to come, when lie and his little foster-sister
were wearied with their own play, to sit at
the feet of Mrs. Netterville, and listen to the
tales which she had invented for their
amusement. Here, as time went on, sepa-
rating Nellie Outwardly from his society,
yet leaving her as near to him in heart as
ever, he had been wont to bring his morning
OF fish from the running stream,
OF punches of purple heather from the rocks. |
Here he had come for news of the war, and
Of the master, on that very day which |
brought tidings- of his death ; and here, too,
even while he tried to comfort Nellie, who |
had flung herself down in her childish misery |
Just on the spot where her mother lay pros-
trate now, he had wondered, and, young as
ne was, had in part, at least, comprehended
,lle marvellous Undergraduates of Mrs.
Netterville, who, i'll the midst of her own
had yet found heart and voice
% comfort her aged father-in-law and her
HI
Town had not fallen with three fold force on
ler own head. In the darkness of the room,
ird the confusion of his own thoughts, he
lid not, heA;eyer, ut first perceive Mrs.
Netterville in her lowly posture, and glanced
toward the prie-dieu, where he
he hour of trial.
But she was not there, and q thrill of ter
or ran through his frame when he ut last
her, face downward, on the floor,
Ter widows Golf flung far away, and her
ong locks. strcaked by the hand of grief,
lot time-abundantly with gray, streaming
ound her i'll Il disorder which struck Hamish
IL the more forcibly, that it was in such
lirect contrast to the natural habits of ,
rider and prOpriety she had brought with
Ter from her English home. There she lay,
lot weeping-such misery as hers knows
othing of the relief of tears-not weeping, :
tut crushed and powerless, as if her very
'ody had proved unequal to the weight of
orrow put upon it, and had fallen beneath t
he burden. She seemed, indeed, not in Il i
woOn, but stunned and stupefied, and quite |
that she was not alone. Hamish
rembled for her intellect but young as he
vas, he was used to sorrow, and understood l
9th the danger and the remedy.
His lady must be reused at any cost, even
t that, the very Thought of which made him G
remble, the recalling her to a full knowl- C
dye of her misery. He advanced farther j
lto the room, moving softly, in his great v
everence for her deso1ation, as we move, U
lmost unconsciously to ourselves, in the
resepce of the dead, and occupied himself
apers on her desk, and the flowers which h
ellie had placed upon the prie-dieu only d s.