Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-01-06

IalftSl anu Ltoos eloi cl AWNING VIC SAai4e1 zoo
Irene Ramsay-Rena her friends called her. She
was tall and slight, Is years old, though she looked
older, and had the meditative, soulful air of a
young woman dreaming Of things far from
the sphere Of our sorrow. The pensive Nun
of PAllegro, Tennys MS ST. Agnes, Shakespeare's
! Isabella, were some Of the characters
in literature to whom Miss Ramsay was accustomed
to being compared and she had familisrized herself
| with whatever poem she seemed to embody to her
admiring frends-theY were as often women as
men-and knowing these productions WE'LL passed
for being fond of poetry, which in her heart she pro-
nounced great rubbish with the same cold smile
with which she inwa-dy pronounced her admiring
friends great fools. Was it her fault that she had
large innocent eyes, and dainty, pure, beseech:ng
face Not at ALL 1t was her friends fault that they
could not discern that she liked the wit and cham
payne and oysters Of the world better than the
mons and milk and water. A kind of cold resent
ment curdled in her heart against all the people she
knew who so misjrdged her. She brooded upon
what she should do to teach them their mistake.
| She meant to astonish them some day. Meantime
she was not very clever at her lessons, but was
"sweet,' SO "lovely," so conscientious" that
she went near to being the model girl OF the model
school.
| The Sinners knew her and the naughtiness Of her
heart but they lay PROSTATE in battalious at the
| shrine Of her charm. She had come from the whrl
OF ultra fashionable life and had been plunged into
st Theresa's because her physique not equal to
| her AMBITION and the round Of CAV lifewas making
her i'll. 1t was exactly what she fitted for, how
ever, and having played off all her airs and graces
and captured, horse, foot and dragoons every living
being at the Hail. she was rapidly becoming bored
| to DEATH
In happy time for the fates always take care Of
the peace of mind Of the Rena Ransays- Stephen
and Richard Dobel returned to Riverside, the first
from Harvard, the latter from theological sem
| mary St. Theresa'J futtered from welbuilt base
ment to correct belfry Some really, truly men,
and the Bishops sons, therefore probably visible to
inmate s of their fathers hobby, but when? That
was question.
The fact that the Bishop resided in the village
promoted that rural spot to the proud eminence of
cathedral town, and with the OF mis- building he
had built cathedral-always St. Theresa's-about
a mile from the school ITSELF and thther, except on
rainy Sundays when Mr.. Brown oiciated in the i'm
mortal chapel the Hall girls duly marched, two and
two, to hear the stately Episcopal service, poor
singing and esthetc sermon from the Bishop. Here
it was that Stephen and Richard Dobel first dawned
upon the horizon of the expectant girls. Stephen
was then twenty feur, an athlete and thinker His
fsce was grave to sternness his large blue eyes
olute and direct to boldness. He could not be in
any sense schoolgirls ideal, except, perhaps, in
his dress, which was la Harvard-that is, in good
taste and worn well. The girls thought him cross
and not handsome. Only Irene Ramsay marked his
sensitive mouth and delicate chin bis full throat
and earnest eyes, and knew him for man to become
the suffering bond.slave of the woman he loved,
whom he would ideaze rast all recognition. One
of the Sinners said he had an intellectual
face, with a dim feeling Of brotherhood to-
ward the presee ce of come strength beyond
mere manhood, and Irene smiled gently, thinking
how little his intellect would avail hi IN certain
contingencies.
Richard Dobell became the idol Of St. Theresa's;
not that the girls ever saw him except at church
heaven forefend But in chat, in looking at pict-
ures, in discussing favorite heroes, Richards per-
sonality somehow always filled out the shadowy
ideal The round, merry lines of his face, his bright
eyes, his readily smiling mouth, made him in some
way more human, more possible to giggle and won-
der about, satisfactory to watch and to watch
for. Irene, however, drew her delicate eyebrows
together when Richard was the topic of converse
ton. His quick sense OF humor would make him
difficult victim, and he looked capable Of laughing
under the very spell of the enchantress Irene
liked to deal hard, lasting blows and laughter is the
one unconquerable shield against passion.
The bad singing at the Cathedral drove stephen
Dobell-a singer himself-to the extreme measure
nj frat pItb hia fafha oh
Bishop consented 10 give the matter into his sons
hands to arrange according 70 his pleasure Stephen
organized a choir OF young men, and the singing
proceeded in artistic wise and growing popularity
until the practice Of the youths Of dropping notes
the low railing OF the organ loft into the pews
occupied by the Hall girls became known to teach
ers, who communicated it in horror to principals,
who proclaimed it with tragedy to the Bishop.
"Inever had under my consideration anything
quite so hopelessly vulgar" said the Bishop, cut
tingly, to Stephen, when the tragic principals had
departed. I" 1 suppose your friends would wink at
the Virgin Mary. suppose it would be simply i'm
possible to penetrate your dense souls with the
speakable commonness and shallow unmanliness of
your weak insults to what the coarsest spirits
have been supposed to stand in awe of-the sanctity
of young womanhood. Do you eat peppermint
drops and provide the young ladies with gum y
Stephens eyes flashed, and his face grew rigid.
| He sprang up trembling
"Father what have you said? What right
and he hurried from the room as the Bishop had
once fed from him, in wrath grown too strong. In
this instance the taunt bitterly unjust, and the
Bishop knew it, but was too angry to be scrupuous
| In point of fact Stephen had no impact with the
I ~ s-Tr- l. Ii
terrible dspeasure he had selected them for their
voices alone; he hardly knew their names. He sat
in the choir on Sunday because it dark and STILL
and he could indulge in long reveres without being
seen because ne liked to sing, and because he could
watch, secure from comment, the pure face and
graceful motions of Irene Ramsay.
She was perfect to him the embodiment OF that
| goddess that ruled in the world OF dreams where
his thoughts went SO often wandering and whence
they reacted bitter and defensive When she lifted
] her face toward the chancel window and sang, he
read yearning remuneration in her eyes that told
OF an unfulflled ideal which turned her thoughts
perforce heavenward, only because earth had proved
repusive and unsightly to her fastidous longiugs.
There not one earthly shadow on Stephens love
of her as he sat and watched her stood and sang
to her. acknowledge no laugh from any constant
reader of Chicago NOVELTIES, whose doughnut-
| jars" and lost brushes" have gone so far to
broaden the grin # banaty and brutality, to crush
the wings of loves nobler than the Mahaffys' and
Simpsons, whereof they tell. Stephen did not sell
tape on the Mondays after these ecststc Sundays,
nor, fortunately, was he Obliged to give his sus-
penders one thought when Irene turned her ankle,
and would have fallen but for his arm one day when
she came running from his fathers house with a
pamphlet that some one had felt instant need to
to consult. She breathed hard but did not cry out
she had scorn for betrayal of suffering, very
usual in Of her type.
Stephen stood at such distance from her, with
the new spring sun shining on his uncovered head,
that she could hardly believe his had just saved
her from nm lnpracaflll fall There was a lirht In