Connecticut western news., 1901-09-26
.CATARlNA:
A SKETCH.

From such surroundings? Yes, per Genius will flourish anywhere, and genius has the happy faculty of bend ing every difficulty to its own advan- tsge. At any rate, though genius It. self Is apt to be very dubious respect ing this comforting doctrine, I cannot but think that Princes road made Cata- rina. Yet, truly, what a setting for such pearl
 Her mother was an Italian, her fa- ther had died while she was still a child, and from that day Catarina was marked by fate. The mother had bought a greengrocer's shop in that very unlovely Princes road have re- ferred to- and there, ensconced in that little fortress-it might be truly said hardly ever quitting guard-she had begun and carried on through long years one of those terrible, grim, silent struggles with poverty, disaster and death with which London Is replete. She had survived, she had been always able just to keep her head above wa ter, but heaven only knows at the cost of what heroism, of what intelligence and of what privations fin that little sea of troubles in which her lot was cast!
 The older inhabitants of Princes road still remember her as a buxom and high spirited young woman, speaking English very badly, but shrewd enough withal. But the years had gradually robbed her of every trace of her for mer beauty and from the first day knew her she was a prematurely old, quiet, careworn 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, but deep, lustrous, blazing up at times with some inward fire or occasionally revealing the strange, yearning, hunted look of poor child of the sunny south wearing out her life In a somber cline and among an alien people.
 No; there was another testimony to Der former beauty-Catarina! She was about 13 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 gaze upon Catarina's countenance without inwardly resolving that that strange, foreign looking creature was predestined to Career"
 Catarina was often to be found in the shop about that time or in the little ''parlour" that served for everything at the back. She was generally to be found there, In fact, for, though she avoided school and was not particu- larly shining light In the paths of learn ing, the girl was devoured with rage for reading. There she was to be found as often as not with a smudge upon her short nose from having han dled dusty potatoes, perched up or crouched down with a novelette,, a story book, a book of travel, of ad- venture. She was extraordinarily pre- cocious in her understanding of the world, just as much as she was back ward in physical development, for she was small for her age. Even then she was ambitious-she was more than ann bilious; she was fiery and resolute. One saw 1t in the flash of the wonder full eyes as she glanced up quickly from her book. seeming in one earnest dart to look through your own eyes in to something, possibly the soul, be- hind!
 She was delightfully."- shy, though con fdent; timid, though fiery; rapid, though tender. When she dropped her eyes, there was fascination that de- pended on no mere demureness, that must indeed have been something un- conscious, for 1t seemed really to be due to the lashes with their long and peculiar fanlike sweep.
 Catarina had resolved even to be an actress. By q sort of instinct she per ceived that that was the only avenue by which she could escape from the surroundings of Princes road, which at the same time she loathed and Ac- quiesced In with natural and even affectionate familiarity.
 .Catarina would weigh out a pound of potatoes with East Lynne" in her hand. She would haggle over an odd halfpenny with the asparagus man, dreaming-for she was always dream ing-of the most brilliant conquests the most illustrious situations of the "boards." 
 Catarina had been six months In "the | profession" By dint of what exer- tions, of what energy, resolution, had | she carried her point! It was heroic. | but of that kind of heroism which Is | utterly unconscious to the doer. Cata- | rina knew world of things, and she | had nerves of steel. She had succeed | ed. And then her chance came. Al most as one losses ball of worsted | to kitten they had given Catarina an | interpolated "song and dance."
 She could not sing a little bit," for, | though her voice had Q quality as | though the sense of touch had some | how been dissolved into 1t, the volume | of sound in singing was altogether too | feeble. The audience laughed, laughed | even at the beautiful Italian eyes, sim | ply because they were "new"-until | Catarina began to dance. They had | taught her steps for fortnight, but in | her excitement she had forgotten them | She fell back upon the steps her mother
 had taught her and upon her genius
 Her dancing spoke, 1t sang, 1t laughed
 1t teased-yes, like the very kitten with the worsted-it fascinated, 1t struck
 fireworks, 1t brought down the house iR q thpnasrclap of suadsns impStnQp2