The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-08-19
CATARINA.

Black and White
From such surroundings? Yes perhaps
because Of such surroundings. Genius
will flourish anywhere, and genius has
the happy faculty of bending every diff
Guilty. to its own advantage. At any rate,
though genius itself is apt to be very
dubious respecting this comforting doc
tr;ne, 1 cannot but think that Princes
Eoad made Catarina. Yet, truly, what
setting for sucn a PEARL
Princes Road is a respectable street
doubtless, but there are grades of re-
spectabiiity that reach to the north index
OF variation, even if we were but to
travel westward from Westbourne Grove
to Archer street, PortobelIo Road, Port.
land Road, to Princes Road Princes
Road is, IN fact grimy, dingy, dull, and
to st1arger, depressing to the last de-
gree. Yet Catarina had spent all her life
there
Her mother was an Italian, her father
had died while she was still child, and
from that day Catarina was marked by
fate. The mother had bought a green
grocers shop In that very unIeyely
Princes Road l have referred to. and
there, ensconsed in that little fortress
it might be truly said hardly ever quit
ting guard-she had begun and carried
on through long years one of those fer
v
dlaSter and death with which London is
replete- She had survived; she had been
always able just to keep her head above
water, but Heaven only knows at the cost
OF what heroism, of what intelligence.
ana OF what prlvatfons in that little sea
or troubles in which her lot was cast
The older inhabitants of Princes Road
still remember her as buxom and high
spirited young woman, speaking English
very badly but shrewd enough withaI
But the years had gradually robbed her
OF every trace Of her former beauty.
and from the first day I knew her she
was prematurely old, quiet. careU,orn
dame-her face sallow and withered. her
cheeks drawn and sunken, her hair dry
and dusty; and If any hint remained to
give assurance to the memory of her
charms, 1t was in her italian eye-sad
out deep, lustrous blazing I'D at times
with some inward fire, or occasionally
revealing the strange, yearning, hunted
lcok of a poor child of the sunny south
wearing out her life in a sonber cline
ana among an alien people,
NO! there was another testimony to
her former beauty-Catarina! She was
ABOUT thirteen when I saw her first. and
most children are pretty at that age: but
no one with the eye of an artist. or with
insight into character, could once eaz
upon Catarina's countenance witbor+ IN
"ard!y resolving that that strange for
eign-iooking creature was predestined RI
a career "
Catarina was often to be found in the
shop about that time, or in tha Iittie
parlor that served for evervthino- 81
the pack. She was generally to be found
tnere. in fact; for though she avoided
Senool and was not a. particularly shining
Hgnt In the paths of learning the Girl
was deyoured with rage for reading
1neIe she was to be found as often as
not with smudge upon her short nose
from having handled dusty potatoes
pefcned up or crouched down with q
novelette,, a. story book a book of travel
or or adventure. She was extraordinarily
pIecoclous in ner understanding of the
world, just as much as she was hack.
ward in physical development, for she
was small for her age. Even then she
was amb1tious-she was more than ambi-
tous. she was fiery and resolute. One
saw 1t in the flash of the wonderful ewes
as she glanced up quickly from ner book
seeming in one earnest dart to look
through your eyes into something-possi-
bly, the soul-behind.
She was deligntflly shy though conf
dent; timid. though fiery; rapid though
tender. When she dropped her ewes
there was a fascination that depended
on no mere occurrences, that must In
deed have been something unconscious,
for 1t seemed really to be due to the
lashes, with their long and peculiar fan
like sweep
Catarina had resolved even to be an
actress. By sort of instinct she per-
ceived that that was the only avenue
by which she could escape from the sur
roundings of Princes Road. which, at
the same time. she loathed and acquiesced