The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1919-12-06
III healthfdl play just as ha wished Pa

: for an occasional -lapse-from gram
| NAUTICAL accuracy or a hearty laugh
from the model aunt herself
| Il thought of possible Illness" said
the priest gently. This is a sickly
season.
Our family rarely has illness. All
the children have inherited sound con-
situations and get the best of care.
No. it is little worry about our ST.
Martba's Society To be frank with
you, Father O'Connor, it was a mis-
take to admit Mrs. Thornton to mem
bership.'
! why, she seems to be a very con-
slant and eligible visitor among the
poor
THAT is not the question, Father
1t is her bad influence at the meet
ings. She is so very frivolous; all for
dress and jokes, and the notice of
men, as if she were a badly brought
up girl Of eighteen, instead of-there,
look at her now," ~.r. +.
The lady in question was passing;
evidently happy in the company of the
tall man of middle age, who, beaming
with good fellowship, had to bend a
bit to catch the words of the bright
faced, gaily-dressed little widow.
Il suppose it's only matter of
taste,' said the priest, keeping his
mind on the spoken criticism, and
Ignoring Mrs. Thorntons escort "a
young woman adjoining herself al
ways seems to me like bird sitting
on bough and preening it's feathers.
It's nature, and so long as it's mod
est"
But Mrs. Thornton is far from
young. She is at least as old as |
am
And you are still a young girl to
me- he answered.
But Miss Talon was not to be pla-
Gated nor diverted from her griev-
jance. Was it zeal undefiled for right
eousness, or was it John Hamilton's
apparent admiration for the little
widow that opened the eyes of a
woman who never Numbered to the
Ishortcoming Of her Trailer sister?
The human heart is labyrinth in
which the wanderer is as often sur
prised by unlocked for evil as by I'M
looked for good. Few knew it's tor
tuous windings better than Father
O'Connor
Miss Tallon's might have beens''
as to holy matrimony had better
ground than most Of those maiden
|
was an heiress, and good to look at
even yet, though a little sharp of fea-
ture and angular of figure. Who in
Brucetown or even in the city a hun
dred miles east of it. where most of
her family dwelt, equalled her in deli
cate refinement of dress-the result,
no doubt, of observant sojourns in
Paris, with well-filled purse?
But the advances of all suitOrs
were repealed with gentle but unmis-
taxable GOODNESS; and only one be-
side herself realized that John Ham
ilton, the playmate of her childhood,
who having acquired competence,
could not be suspected of mercenary
motives, might at any time have had
that, well-controlled heart for the. ask
ing. True he had sacrificed many of
| his best years to the claims of filial
and brotherly duty, but. at last he was
| free. And now, if he paid to any
| woman attention in which the little
world of Brucetown could read the
slightest significance, it was to this
gaudy, f1ippant stranger.
| This was the thought, albeit vague
and unacknowledged, which tortured
Miss Talon during the uncomfortab BILE
silence which had fallen between her
self and an old friend.
| But there is nothing. so wrong as
1 to be ground for remonstrance,' said
the priest at last.
| Only that she is slangy and flip
pant to the verge of irreverence,
brazen in her pursuit of mems atten-
tons, and having ready though
hardly refined humor, she has cast a
sort of spell over all our younger
members. But knowing her brothers
and sisters as we do, what could we
exrect?''
| The priest had no answer, for he
himself had accounted it miracle of
grace that the youngest of the wild
and goddess family in question had
| been brought through her widowhood
and the death of her idolized child
within the range Of his influence, and
! family into the Church
| Il had hoped SO much for both from
a possible friendship between you,"
he said regretfully.
| Il can't imagine what Mrs. Thorn
ton could have done for me- said
Miss Talon coldly. But rising, Il
must go. l have already taken far
too much of your valuable time
Miss Talon was down the steps of
theS rectory before Father OConnor
had found another parting word.
| Now that his attention had been
called to it, the good priest had to
admit Mrs. Thornton's f1ippancy and
her ready and thoughtless wit that
seldom stopped to note where its
sharp arrows pierced. Had he not
more than once in his occasional visits
to the Society of st. Martha, seen the
droll little mouth with which she re-
ceived the measured utterances of the
stately president? Had he not even
caught her in a telling caricature of
| the presidents good manner? The
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