The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1877-06-17
NUMBER 10.
THE LADY
NEVILLE COURT.
4 TALE OF THE TIMES.
Continued.l
CHAPTER xxi.

CHAPTER XXI.
Dr.. 0 Aeara was not the only person In the
Glebe House that WAS that evening sappoEnt-
ed by RA.S. Two of the ladies had seen bis,
arrive, and each Of them, for reasons of her
own, was somewhat snxiously expecting him.
IN the drawing-r oons. Miss Barbara for one
she had intended to sweep msiestically ont q
the room the instant he should enter Il. and
mad been, moreover, practising certain glances
of indignation to dart at him which, far more
effectually than any words could do. we're Ia
wither him to the very roots.
Miss Fanny was the other; for demure a.
she looked, really and dearly did the little
she relish 1t better than in that of . serio-
comic argument with the Doctor Certainly
these encounters very much resembled those Of
which always terminated in the inHiorIouo
rolling over of the latter, although he was
always the aRgressor; and they had, more
over, like them, the advantage Of being fully
as amusing to the lookers-on AZ to tie par
ties concerned. This evening Fanny WAS In
the humor for fun, and she listened impa-
ttentfy for the doctors footsteps, ali the time
that she busted herself in trying to twine
wild flowers on Looloo's ears.
Very different were Msude's sensations; for,
Notwithstanding Fanny's sisterly endeayor to
eradicate from her cousins mind the eject
produced upon 1t by aunt Barbara's insinua-
tiOns, they had made quite ne deep an impress
sion upon her 40 that lady could have desired.
In spite Of all that Fanny could do or say to
rally her, and she had done and said Q great
deal that evening, Maude had remained silent
and abstraoted ever since, plying her needle
with an industry that owed St least half it's
energy to her iDdign alton, and wing over
and over again id her thoughts an endless
variety of fears, doubts, and misgivinRs. Up
on aunt BarbarH's return from her expedition
to Tins cabin, in order to retire as far as pos
sible from that lady's vicinity, Maude had
seated herself at the pisno, and hers had been
the music that had crested the doctor upon
his arrival. The outer world little suspsots
the host of associations that lie in the strains
over which young hearts have suffered them.
selves to dream. There was not an impromptu,
or nocturn, or sympbony that Maude Neville
plays that evening, that had not for her
Ian guage of it's own. As one plaintive air after
another stole forth from the keys in deep, pas-
sionate, mastery chords, the reflections that
had Hgtsted her all the evening were re-
membered no more, and though apparently In
tent upon her music she wandered far, far
away, III one OF those airy daydreams that
bright young spirits love so dearly to indulge
in-dreams IN which Imagination, like o gold
en- shuttle, CLEANS and glances through the
warp and woof of the past and future, till it
weaves them into q web Of fact and fiction that
to the dTeamer's fancy seems q fabric of I'M
mingled tIuLn ; dreams over which sage MAJ
ter.oT Fact shakes his head and groans, but
" hich are perhaps, after all, only part of o
process necessary TO preserve the more deli
cate fbTes of some natures from abrasion in
their after contact with the world dreams,
too, alas, at which the dreamer himself will
smile in years to come, when his fairy tissue
shall have grown faded and -tbEeadbare, and
the objects over which be had cast it shall
stand oct in their native baroness and stern
reality.
Ma1de's music and reveries were at length
intercepted, much to EAnny's disappointment,
by the entrance of q servant with the tea, and
With IL q message from Mr.. Neville, inform
ing them that the gentlemen would not JOIN
Stem that evening, as he had ordered co Gee to
be carried 20 the Study. Maude YVES deeply re-
Iieved, the more so that Miss Barbara, finding
Il i'm possible to Snpihilate her adversary that
evening, took herself of at once. About an
hour later the servants came in and Fanny
kiss aud earnest Injunction to Maude, mot to
think any more about aunt Barbara" che re-
tired for the night Maude soon after rose,
and lighted her candle with the best possible
intention of following her example. Bot, nm
strong as she still felt, it was evident to her
that sleep would be altogether out of the
. nestion, and, her writing desk ct this moment
5hsuciuR 30 catch her eye, che sat down in
,tead, to write to Mrs. Csrew.
No sooner, however, WAS the pen between
ler fingers than she realized how difficult was
,ho task she had undertaken ; Tor that very
she had decided the lonR-wavering
balance, and had resolved to become . Catho-
ic, W whoever and whatever iG might cost her.
Still it formed no part of her present intention
% inform her friends of the momentoua step
Tho contemplated, implying "a it did .
;hanRe, not only in her religious convictions,
Dut 10 her plans, prospects, aud everything
,lss that concerned ner. And yes 20 write in
he old familiar strain og 1nrcRefvo, with the
Of egob q secret lying between
horaeif and her adopted motheEs was 3 tnqk
sasana nee BoEers en1 ~ ~
!.