The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1875-10-03
msrslng Star ana Catholic Messenger.
y NEW oRIEANs. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 3 1875.


n MBw ORLEANS. SUNDAY. OCTOBER ,. 1875.
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knowing the others secret, both loved him.
That our hearts were 30 easily captivated, may
have been partly the result of the fact that we
had not mingled much in society, and knew
but little of men, Lady B had concealed
from us her wishes regarding Ethel, desiring
it to be an affair of the heart, and Of her own
free will, but explained them to him from the
beginning. He evidently sought to carry them
out, paying to her all those particular atten-
tions o lover pays; and no one could have been
more surprised than /, when, one morning, he
made declaration of love to me, and asked
me to be his wifs. Always naturally reticent,
did not reveal to him the state of my feelings,
till had asked and obtained from him what
appeared then q satisfactory explanation of his
conduct towards Ethel. 1t was to the effect,
that he had merely been trying to follow out
Lady R-'s wishes, of which /, for the first
time then, became aware; that he knew Ethel
did not love him, and that, as the time ap-
preached when he must ask her to be his
wife, life grew positively hateful to him. He
would explain to Lady b. She was too
reasonable to sacrifice her daughter and him to
q mere whim; and the world knew, that, next
to Ethel, she loved me better than any one on
earth and next to her would she have chosen
me for the bearer of the proud title about
which she was SO jealous. Alas alas, became
Lady B-w
"E1traordinary !" This was entirely involun-
tarily. Lady B, q titled parsonage, gov
erness to the child of the exercising sweeper!
Nothing but that all-powerful polysyllable
could have relieved Luke Lawton from the
dreadful weight of the thought And he had
dared to try to be kind to this noble lady!
"I beg you pardon, ma'am-Lady -
"For what, Mr.. Lawtonf / am sure the in.
terruption was quite natural. 1t ,cas extraor-
dinary, that should marry thus!"
"Not that ma'am-not that. think we all
marry queer, more or less, and find out after
wards it amt just nil 'our fancy painted it,
But"-in his earnestness he stood up, and his
burly figure, for the moment, assumed the atti-
tude of very humble and, at the same time,
almost reverential petitioner-"I beg your
pardon for any ways 1 may have treated you,
since you came to my house, as if-as if-well,
as if You wasn't nobody particular"
"And l." said she, with that charming air of
courtesy and dignity combined, so queenly in
its aspect, "thank you, Mr.. Lawton, for the
chivalric respect and unobtrusive kindness,
with which you always treated your daughters
governess, and which was ft for the acceptance
of royalty itself"
Extraordinary, mA'am! Excuse me, but
your kind amt the kind they're took to be, at
all, if you're sample"
"Do not mind my rank, Mr. Lawton. l
should be sorry to think it should change your
conduct to me in the least. will resume my
story now. l said l became Lady b. In
becoming so, thought my lover sacrificed
such portion of the property as formed Ethers
private allowance, to take me dowerless; andI
thought she owned no more tender interest in
him than that of near kinship. Lady b
took the matter as kindly as could be expected
under the circumstances, and, for awhile, was
happy with happiness entirely unalloyed. In
high position, courted and lauded by the world
abroad, adoring my husband, and living for
him, at home gave myself up to this life and
its pleasures, thinking little of that beyond.
had been brought up in the Catholic religion,
to be sure. as being that of my parents; but my
husband and oil connected with him were Pro-
testAnts, and among them lived as they did,
not, indeed, Influenced SO much by the power
of their creed as by the pomps of the world.
But when my trial came, paid bitterly for
this.
"It began when Ethel dropped and pined
away, with no apparent disease to take the
life so dear to Us all. Before she died, she told
me how ahe loved my husband, and how life
was nothing to her without him. And alone
knew she died of q broken heart, not consump-
tiop, as the doctors termed 1t, for want of u
better name. Too late found out that, with
. herosm of generosity almost superhpman,
abe concealed the fact that he had declared u
love for her equal 10 her own, and then unac
Countably left her to marry me. This she
did not even confde to her mother, and the
manner in which 1 discovered it was very
strange. She wore little locket, aud, drawing
it out one day, che begged me to see that it
would be buried with her. After her death, l
clasped it round her neck with my own hands,
and yet, when the funeral was over, the old
servant, whose task it was to re-arranGe the
room where Ethel had laid in death, brought
it to me, saying she found it on the floor.
could only account for this, by supposing that,