The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-05-31

nuns; but what was well enough for poor girl in
. country where she could never rise above hez
birth is not fitting for the daughter of q man
whose wealth can place her where he will in
this land Of equality. OF course, would do
nothing to risk the loss of her faith, but how
can that be when she has made her first CON-
munion, been wen instructed, and can go to
church every Sunday with q Catholic teacher
who talses special charge of such pupils"
These arguments and many more Mrs OBrien
as to at length gain her point. and in the fol-
lowing spring Kate was sent i'll charge of q
friend, and placed with her daughter q
Madame Figaro's, to acquire, as her father said,
foreign airs and native graces."
CHAPTER IL
Three years, with their alternate extremes Of
the inevitable Reaper that SO ruthlessly mows
alike the airyOung flower, and the gnarled oak,
at q season, too, when earth is most radiant in
her beauty; when the bow of promise hangs in
the heavens, and the sheen of it's beauty radi-
ates the heart; three years of such lights and
shadows have passed over our friends, and the
little family circle has escaped the DIM clouds,
of uninterrupted prosperity, though two Of
those seasons of double pestilence had visited
the city. Cholera and fever had striven for
one spared the other ruthlessly struck down.
ALI busy, outdoor life was suspended. save
such as ministered to the wants of the sick,
and the last offices for the dead. Priest and
physician and nurse knew no longer any dis
tinction between day and night, for their min
istrations were needed regardless of time. All
through the dark, weird hours of the night, the
silent watcher by some dying couch heard tho
roll of the vehicle that bore them to the side of
those they were to comfort, to save, OF per-
chance to lose. Only the house of prayer was
sought by the living, either to supplicate Tor
some precious life struggling in the balance, or
as q resting spot for the dead ere the tomb
should shut them out of sight forever. On
every side Rachel was crying for her children
an1 fOrIu nd ham Ot
tear-dimmed eye of the lone widow looked at
you through her drapery of woe, and the orphan
cried in vain for the hand that had given them
bread and the hearts that had loved them.
De prctamdis af IL ciemari, Went up i'll one i'll
cessant wall to God, and still the scythe moved
ceaselessly on, and the Reaper bore away his
spells for eternity. Who that had passed
through a visitation like this could believethst
the heart could ever again rally and look upon
life as anything but a vast charnel house And
yet, oh faci!e, wavering humanity in a few
gorgeous apparel, the wall of mourning to
sounds of mirth, the pageantry OF death to the
trappings of gay and busy life, and the slow
and solemn tread that had followed the dead
to their last home, kept time to the merry
sounds of viol and lute and thus all the clouds
that lowered upon our house were in the deep
bosom of the ocean buried
Mrs. OBriep. i'll these three years. had real
lied her fullest hopes, and is now the mistress
of one of the most elegant residences i'll the
city. Possessed of good mind IL plain edu-
woman, tact, she had so used these advantages
as to make for herself position that years of
study under a regular maifressc nc ceremoRie
could never have obtained for her Her pro-
yincialisms had died out, and nothing but
slight accent now remained to make the con-
trast of the past with the present visible to
those who met her for the first time as one of
the rising stars in the galaxy OF the noureau
richie. Dennis was not so plant a subject in the
hands of the graces, for an occasional Hlber-
nianism, spite of his wite's trimming, would still
escape him; but his handsome physique, bluff,
hearty manners, and noble, honest heart made
him q favorite and welcome guest whenever he
consented to accompany his wife III her round
of fashionable gayety. Kate obrlen had re-
turned early in the winter from schooi and re-
allied more than the promise OF even her early
beauty, and her ambitious mother mad lnaugu-
rated her debut by an entertainment that
rivaled in expense and splendor any thing that
had yet been seen in the city, and feft not
loop hole for even the most fastidious, where
with to cavil. At one bound Kate reached the
throne of reigning belle, and the SOFT tnsou-
stance of her life, the endless strain OF nattery,
combined with natural inertness ana want OF
force, soon made a wreck of the principles that
linked her faith and piety with the teachings OF
her early convent home. A girl with so much
beauty and presumptive wealth. could not be
long without suitorS, and Kate OBrien proved
no exception to this rule. Among TIE many
aspirants, the one pre-emincntiS favored by
mother and daughter, was Il, Mr--Stewart,
"rising man." who spent the winter months III
New Orleans as the representative oil a large
commercial house of c.. Handsome in per
son, engaging in manner, Mrs. OBren was con-
tent to look no further, but mt once charmed
both the young people by giving her consent
to his suit. But not Dennis OBrien. With
larger knowledge of human nature, and
quicker intuitive sense of lurking danger, he
found the man to he narrow-minded, self-opin-
donated, domineering, and bgoted on every
point that clashed with dhis own preconceived
opinions. So, when Mrs. O'Brien urged him to
withdraw his objections, in consideration of
the feelings of his daughter and her own wishes,