Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-11-23
every clerk as the yellow nestilence fac is. the


envelope containing letter of dismissal.
she put on her hat. and opened her umbrella.
ana walked home, daZed and dizzy. as unable
10 think for while. as if a blow had struck and
stunned her.
Here was Senator Balfairs hand He had had
this thing done And she had few friends in the
world and they were all away, some OF them at
the ends OF the earth; and perhaps none of them
could help her-certainly not General Shurtleff.
VINO was in an open quarrel with the head of her
department: certainly not Mrs. Shurtleff who
would be glad to have her reduced to no alterna-
i've but marryingh her prosecutor. And with the
powerful hand of great Senator against her,
how was she to contend anyway? There was no
help: she was dismissed from Office. She had
not hundred dollars in the world: she had not
Deen brought up to work, and there was nothing
she could do; there was only choice between
starvation for herself and her mother and her
brother, and marriage with the man she loathed.
For herselfit would be easy: but for them. And
then her mother would drive her half wild with
her woes. And so she did
The summer was already gone. and now Sep
TENDER crept away. October, with it's magic
color in all the squares and on all the hills,
wrapped the great white splendOr Of the Capitol
in its azure haZes, and yelled every long length
of avenue or reach over the Potomac into the
virginia shores, or up the Maryland slopes, with
allurIng yapOrs that seemed to say it was all q
mistake suppOsing there was any Wretchedness
in such lovely world. And every week of it
saw them nearer the end of their tritie of money,
while she sought day by day for work, for pu-
pills, for any means of subsistence whatever, and
sought in vain. Those whose daughters might
learn were out of town. those who needed
nursery-maids were still out of town. too; there
was nothing in town, it seemed to her, but want
and trouble
And now November had come, and was pass
inc. and the winter would be alOng--and they
had a five-dOar bill. If they were cOlOred peO-
pie they could at any rate GO out and pick coal
from the railway and refuse heaps.
Mamma" said Maria at last, ''now you have
had time to think it over do you still really
wish me to marry that man whose baseness has
reduced us to this strait?-the man who found
us happy and well enough. and has brought this
ruin on u.s." Her mother looked at the beauti-
full face grown now so white and thin with care
and anxiety and the diet of dry bread, and burst
into tears
ooh, Maria. thought it was for the best"
she cried. II wanted you so to have everything
you should. But he is dreadful, dreadful. He
makes me shudder to think of hun. never want
to see his face again"
laughing and half crying, ''it is better than a
fortune to hear you say so. Now, at least, we
are OF one mind again, and we can die in peace
and love together if need be-"
81 don't want to die" sobbed Mrs. Won Luit-
phen.
"And don't mean to-" cried Robbie 81 will
open shells in Oyster Bay first" and Marie
smiled sadly to look at his little weak white
hands that never had been good for anything
and then cried to think of it.
1t was while she was crying and trying her
best to check it that Robbie ran, the door-bell
ringing. to usher in upon her, with her brim-
ming eyes and dishevelled hair, a spare dark
gentleman in long cassock-Father Bianchi
He had roll of music under his arm and after
an abrupt word ortwO of greeting, he opened and
spread it on the piano rack in business-lke
way, struck few chords, and called her to his
side. II have need of a soprano to-day" he
said. without any circumlOcution. SIT is st.
Cecilia's Day. We will see what we can do in
her honor" And the room never echoed to
such music as that singing while Maria
lifted up her heart and soul
in her suddenly hopeful voice. for once
hardly at all abashed by the dri-master who
declared this passage taken wrong, and that
without expression, and the other travesty of
the writer's meaning. But after an hour smile
gathered on Father Bianchi's dark face and he
put his music into the case again. THAT is we'll"
he said; ION the whole, well. You are the So
prano of st. Cecilia's choir. You will be ready
for evening service at the choral festival to-
night. have meant to make it an Offering of
song beyond all others in the land. We have
been preparing for it this six weeks. and to-day
feared all for nothing, till l recalled you. You
must sing it again before night in company
with the rest"
But where is the other sOprano?" asked Ma
ria, timidly.
My soprano and my tenor have been dis
missed" said Father Banchi. 81 do not at all
require my singers to worship with ME; but | do
require that they shall not hinder others from
wOrshipping with me by their secular conduct
have replaced my tenor. haveinguired about
you. You will surely sing with devOut spirit
you have something to be thankful for. The
salary is not equal to that Of your late desk in
the Treasury; but the position will bring you
pupils in singing that Will double it, will see
to it."
And if Senator Belfalr was among the throng
III the great church that night. listening to the
music at the choral festival of st. Cecilia's. as
that sweet slvery voice threw forth it's throb-
blng tones in an ecstasy of triumph and thanks,
he must have felt that Maria Won Luitphen had
escaped his tolls forever, and was as far removed
from his impossible reach as st. Cecilia herself,
singing with her choir of angels round her, was
in heaven.