The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-01-19

rush order-some one going upon
journey tomorrow and must get the
work done.
In spite of this good excuse she
had some trouble in calming Con-
stance, who was hurt and angry, and
she felt so disappointed herself that
she had to brush away a few tears
as she sat down to her sewing again.
But that evening as she stitched
,cease1essly on far into the night all
the regret and sadness wore away,
and a feeling of heavenly peace and
joy filled her SOUL. She was more
than repaid for her sacrifice when the
next morning she saw the delight of
the good missionary, and received his
promise to pray ceaselessly for her
during his exile in the Wilds of Africa.
A few weeks later the postman
brought Mary letter from Australia
in an unknown handwriting, and to
her utter establishment she found that
it was from a lawyer telling her
she had become heiress to 9500,000
left her by an uncle of her mothers
whose very existence she had forgot
ten. Her first feeling was one of graf
itude and joy. Then a chill of appre
hension ran over her as she thought
of what Father Blackmore had said.
But, oh, she would not let it be a
curse! She would use it only to help
her poorer brethren, the Church, the
icc CT ncf Ghn roy tn chnu hnr 1nttnr
to Father Blackmore and then to her
dear COMFY, planning the while to
send large checks at the earliest mo-
ment to different Catholic charities
and missions. How lavish she would
be in her gifts! How happy to be so
helpful!
Ten years had slipped by since that
day, and in the vain, restless, ultra
fashionable woman living in splen-
did mansion no one could have recog-
nized the sweet, pious Mary of old.
And her soul was still more changed
than her outward appearance. True,
she still called herself a Catholic. She
went to late Mass on Sunday when
not too tired by the previous nights
pleasures, and she led perfectly
correct life. Not a breath of scan
dial had ever touched her. But all her
piety, her love of missions, her daily
Mass, and reception of the Blessed
Eucharist, her tender devotion to Our
Blessed Lady, her peace and happi-
ness of soul, had vanished by degrees
and left her a hardened and worldly
woman, always seeking her personal
pleasure and comfort, eager to Guido
her rivals and to shine in society.
She spent money lavishly enough on
herself, but as soon as she was ap-
pealed to for some good work she
found she couldn't afford to give-she
had so many calls on her generosity
or else she gave paltry sum Of
which she would have been ashamed
in the days when she spent fifteen
cents for a new flower for her hat
The change had come little by lit
tie. At first she had been generous
and little altered by her good fortune,
but soon. fashionable people who had
hitherto ignored her existence, gath
cred around her and made much or
her, persuaded her that she owed it
to herself to have, first an elegant
apartment, then a great mansion with
numerous servants, automobiles, etc.
She had struggled for a while-more
and more weakly as time wore on
then had given up, and finally had
almost snubbed her old friends who
were not of the fashionable set. After
some years she had left her native
city to 60 to larger one, where no
one had known her as the little dress
maker, and where, by degrees, she
became completely engulfed in the So
cial vortex.
And was she happy as of old? All,
no! Ambition and jealousy and pride
possessed her hardened heart, and to
stife the voice of her conscience she
had to rush Afrom one excitement to
another. So-called friends" sWarmed
around and fattered her, and to one
of them, considered sharp business
man, she confided the management OF
her affairs, desiring him if possible to
increase her already large fortune. In
order to do this he speculated, at first
successfully, then after few failures,
more and more wildly in order to re.
trieve matters. During this time Mary
had accepted one of her many suitors,
the son of one of the most exclusive
families in the city. She tried to
think herself intensely happy, but her
conscience reproached her more than
ever and sense of impending evil
hung over her. She threw herself few
erishly into the preparations for the
wedding and was kept in perfect
whirl of dinners, dances and recep-
lions given in her honor. In the midst
of all this turmoil of excitement, like
thunderclap from a clear sky, came
the discovery that her business man
had lost most of her fortune through
his speculations, and had absconded
with the greater part of what re-
manned. Immediately her new friends
dropped away as if by magic, her
lover found a plausible excuse for
breaking off the engagement, and poor
Mary suddenly found herself almost
penniless and friendless in the midst
of that great city where for a time
she had been a reigning fayorite.