The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1870-04-14
MINNESOTA. THURSDAY APRIL

speak but have you tn ought we'll ovt
the tremendous importance of the ste
you arc taking. You arc young enoug
to look for something different from
If you wanted home, Rcine is q
ways there Fontaine IS an exec
lent fellow but your tastes are so uu
like; your whole education and way q
thinking :"
/ "You don't know what it is," sal
Catharine, speaking very gently; /"
shall have home and some ono t
look to" but her heart sank as sh
spoke.
| Butler himself was one of thos,
wcak-minded natures that sometimes
trouble themselves about other con
Germs besides their own and those o
their OVID belongings. The stslwar
hero who succeeds in life, loves hi
wife aud his children, or the object oI
his affections, his friends, his dog, but
t worries himself no further about his
difficulties and sorrows, expressed and
unexpressed, by which ha is surround.
ed. He does his days work, exchaog-
good-humored greetings with the pass
ers-by, but he lets them pass on. He
would never, for instance, dream Of be-
ing sorry for lonely, fauciful littlo
woman who CHANGED to cross his path.
He might throw her sovereign if she
were starving, and shut the door, but
that would be the extent Of his sym
pathy. The Mr.. Grundys OF life are
sensible, manly fellows, business-like,
matter-offact, aud they would very
sensibly condemn the foolish vsgaries
aud compunctivns Of impractical WIS.,
ionarics like Dick. And they are safer
companions, perhaps, than others Of
finer nerve ann more sympathetic fibre.
Ctharine might have been heart.
"hole and laughing still with the chit
dren in the garden if Dick Butler had
belonged to the tribe Of MIR. Grundys.
Unluckll7 for her, he was gentle and
kind-hearted, and chivalrous after a
fashion. tic could not help being
touched by helplessness and simplicity.
He said nothing to Catharinc more
than he had said to any Of the young
ladies Of his acquaintance, but the
mere fact of her dependence and iu-
equality-although he would not own
it-gave importance to what had no
1t would have been truer
kindness to have left her alone, for it is
no longer the business of knights-er-
rant to 60 about rcscuing damsels in
distress.
And yet Dick had a gift, which does
not belong to all men-a gift Of SYM
pathy and intuitive tenderness. "What
chance of happiness was there for that
impressionable little creature with the
well-meaning but tiresome Fontaine ?"
So he said to himself and aunt one
day; but Madame dc Tracy only as
surcd him that he was mistaken in his
estimate Of Fontaine. It vas charm
ing arrangement, and Catharino was
perfectly happy.
Catharines perfect happiness mani
Tested itself by strange restlessncss;
she scarcely ate, her dreams were trou-
bled, music would make her eyes fill
with tears. "Voi che sapete," some
one was singing one evening she
could not hear it, and jumped up and
went out through the window into the
night. She did not go very far, and
stood looking at them all, feeling like
little stray sprite out of the woods peer
ing in at tho happy united company as
semblcd in the great saloon.
Madame de Tracy was surprised and
somewhat disappointed at the silence
and calmness with which Catharino ac-
cep:ed her new lot in life. She took
the girl up into her room that night,
and talked to ber for nearly an hour,
congratulated, recapitulated, embraced
her affectionateIy, and then sat holding
her hand between her own fat whito
fingers; but it was all 10 vain. Her
heroine would not perform the little
thing had no confidence to give in re-
turn; she seemed suddenly to have
frozen up; still, chill, pale, answering
only by monosylables, silent and i'm
penetrablc, Catharin, seemed trans
formed Into somebody else. She was
not ungrateiul for the elder lady's
kindness, but her eyes looked with be.
soeching, fawn-like glance, which
seemed to say, "Only leave me-only
let me be-" This was not in tue
least amusing or interesting to Madame
de Tracy or Catharine. It was a sor
of slow torture. Dazed aud a little
stupefe9, and longing for silence, to b.
expected to talk sentiment when sh,
felt none, to blush, to laugh conscious
ly, to listen to all the countess rap
turcs and. cxclama;iors, was wear,
work. The child did her best, tried t.
speak, tut the words died away on he
lips; tried to say sh: Was happy, bu
then a sudden pain in her hear
seemed to rise and choke her
What was she doing ? Dick dlsapprov
ed. Was it too late to undo the worl
she had begun?
|