The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-18

writing about this affair to his wife, and
he long kept brooding over the matter.
Her silence on the subject he IS SAID to
have considered willful deception on her
part, and gradually his mind became
biased against her. Upon her return to
this country, he met her at Pittsburg and
at once preached the subject that seemed
of such importance to him, reproducing
her for bringing stain upon his name
and deceiving him. How could he take
her to California and acknowledge her as
his life, when her sisters position was the
talk of the State? This and much more
he said and those knowing Miss Heron
high spirit and integrity of purpose will
not wonder at the reply she made him:
Seventeen years ago. she said, i re-
member as a child seeing young widowed
sister an inmate OF my fathers house;
then she disappeared, my brother followed,
was absent two or three days, and re-
turned, bringing her little girl of years
with him. The child was brought up in
my fathers house, but her mother S
name was never mentioned in the
family. l have heard that re-
markedly resemble, in form and face,
that sister; but since childhood l have
never seen her. What temptations and
trials caused her fall L do not know, but
wherever she is my prayers Will follow
her. AS for my not showing you this
blotted page in our family history, l
did not think of it in connection with our
affairs, but now, thank Heaven! our
marriage was a secret one. You return
to your friends-henceforth l will be we'd
ded to my profession.
differentiation changed Mr.. Byrne's
view OF the subject. He followed Miss
Heron to New York, urged her to forgive
his injustice, and return with him to San
Francisco; but all his persuasions, aided
by the entreaties of her brother (whom he
had enlisted in his cause), did not avail to
change her decision. Ambition took the
place of love, and made her heart dumb to
all his pleadings. Finding there was no
hope, he finally consented to a separation,
though neither of them ever obtained a
divorce. On being asked why she
did not refute the aspersions made
upon her character by publishing
the true facts connected with the
separation of Mr.. Byrne and herself, Miss
Heron said: i could not do it. The sis
ter who was the unfortunate cause of our
trouble could not cling to evil; bitterly
repentant, she changed her course of life
and has married a gentleman of position
and wealth, after making him acquainted
with the errors of her past Now she is
aged and her days are spent in doing good
to others. If l wrote vindication OF nv.
self the public would expect names and
particulars regarding her which would
tend to humiliate her deeply; therefore I
will bear it for my sisters sake"
Mr.. Bvrne returned to California, where
he soon afterward died. Miss Heron
opened an engagement in New York City,
which proved a brilliant success; after
which she appeared throughout the coun-
try, and, returning to New York in 1857,
was much admired at Wallack's old thea
ter as Camille.
In December of the same year she mar
ried Robert Stoepel, German musician
of considerable ability and reputation,
who was at that time orchestra leader at
the above-named theater. After an ex-
tended tour through the States they
visited England. Upon returning to
America with her young daughter, Helen
Wallace Stoepel, Mrs. Stoepel separated
from her husband, being ever after known
as Nine. Heron. Her whole interest was
now centered in this child; her affection
for whom was actually tigress-like in in
tensity and exclusiveness. Bijou, as the
child was fondly called, was the day star
of her existence; she feared les any one
should ever draw away from her the small
est particle of the little ones love.
Many of the eccentricities of the later
years of "Camille's" life were traceable
to this morbid affection for her little
daughter. The womans soul was wrapped
around the girl. At a merry party of
friends assembled in New York City to
celebrate the thirteenth birthday of little
Biiou, Nine. Heron, then in her happiest
mood, spoke of the future, and her eyes
filled with tears of pride as she led out her
little girl, who nestled lovingly by her side,