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moral force solely as a means of obtaining national redress of
grievances, hot and personal remarks fell from the lips of the
speakers on both sides; great excitement was created among the
audience, and finally O'Brien and many of the ablest and most active
of the repeal writers and speakers withdrew, and formed what was
called the Confederation or “Young Ireland” party. Though
thoroughly honest, high-toned, and brilliant as orators and
journalists, the Young Irelanders could never win any appreciable
amount of popular support; and though up to February, 1848, when
the French Revolution threw Europe into a ferment of excitement,
they never contemplated armed resistance, the people generally
looked upon them with suspicion, and refused their co-operation. In
the summer of that year, however, they did make an attempt at
revolution, and, as might have been expected, miserably failed. Thus
the “Association” and the “Confederation” disappeared almost at the
same time; and now that a quarter of a century has passed, and a
new generation has come to the front, we find the principles and
aims of the original organization revivified and incorporated into
what is called the “Home Rule League.”
In its demands, this association is more moderate than was
O'Connell. He wanted repeal of the treaty and act of union, pure and
simple, and the restoration of the national legislature as it was in
1782, with the emancipation and other kindred acts superadded.
The Home Rulers, if we may judge from the resolutions passed at a
very large conference held lately in Dublin, only ask for a parliament
to regulate their domestic affairs, leaving to the British imperial
Parliament full power and authority over all matters concerning the
entire empire, or, in other words, placing Ireland [pg 065] in the
same position with regard to the law-making power as that now held
by Canada, except the right of Ireland to send a proportional
number of members to the imperial assembly. The success of such a
scheme in Ireland would naturally lead to the restoration of the old
Scotch Parliament, and possibly to imperial representation for
Canada and other trans-marine colonies of Great Britain. Hence the
widespread interest it has excited throughout the empire.

The objections to the home-rule plan, as far as we can gather them
from the English and Tory Irish press—for the politicians have
carefully avoided its discussion—are principally three:
I. The confusion and possible conflict of authority which might arise
from having two co-ordinate legislative assemblies under the same
government.
II. That the people of Ireland are unable to govern themselves, and,
as the last Parliament was lost by the corruption and venality of its
members, a restored one would be open to the same deleterious
influences.
III. That as the Catholics, from their numbers, would necessarily
have a majority in the Commons, the rights of property and the
guaranteed privileges of their Protestant fellow-subjects would be in
danger.
IV. That the granting of legislative power would be only a step to
complete independence.
To these objections it is answered, first, that as the advocates of
home rule merely require power to regulate affairs purely domestic,
and not touch on those within the jurisdiction of an imperial
Parliament, there would be little possibility of a collision of the two
bodies; secondly, they admit the premises, but deny the conclusion
regarding the probability of bribery and corruption, for the conditions
are altered. The rotten and presentation boroughs, from whence the
tools of the Castle sprung, have been swept away by the Reform Bill,
and landlord influence has received a decided check by the adoption
of the ballot. They further allege that the Catholics now, particularly
since the Encumbered Estates Act was passed, are the most
numerous body of landholders in the kingdom, and are consequently
conservative, and would be exceeding jealous of any agrarian law
that might be proposed; that the late Church Disestablishment and
Land Acts have done away with many of the causes of quarrel

between Catholics and Protestants growing out of tithes,
endowments, etc.; and triumphantly point to the numerous
Protestant gentlemen, many of whom are clergymen, who have
joined their movement. As to the idea of total separation, they very
properly retort that if Ireland will not rest satisfied with the
concession of her just demands, it is not likely that she will be more
loyal to the crown as long as they are withheld.
This repeal movement, in another shape, like its predecessor, had a
very obscure birth and a small christening. About three years ago, a
few gentlemen met in a private room in the city of Dublin to chat
over political affairs, amongst whom was Isaac Butt, a member of
Parliament, and a lawyer of large experience and great eminence in
his profession, who suggested the outlines of the present plan of
operation. Like most hardy plants, its growth was at first slow, but it
has [pg 066] recently sprung up a hale, hearty tree, with boughs
overshadowing all classes and creeds at home, and roots extending
through the sister island and its dependencies. From the first the
leadership has been accorded to Butt, who, though by no means a
man of the gigantic calibre of O'Connell, is still a very competent
political guide and an energetic organizer. Though a Protestant and a
great favorite with the more liberal sectarians, he seems to enjoy the
confidence and friendship of many of the Catholic bishops and a
large number of the priesthood, particularly those of the venerable
Archbishop McHale, whose name we find appended prominently to
the call for the late conference in the capital. With Butt are such
men as Sir John Gray, Mr. Mitchell-Henry Sullivan, Dease, Major
O'Reilly, Digby, Synan, Murphy, Blennerhassett, the O'Connor Don,
and other prominent laymen; while the Catholic clergy in great
numbers, headed by Dean O'Brien, of Limerick, are active
sympathizers. The Home Rulers count in their ranks in Ireland alone
about sixty members of Parliament, besides nearly half that number
representing English constituencies. Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, one of
the most profound and the best organizing minds that Ireland has
produced for many generations, is, it is said, about to return from
Australia, and again enter the British Parliament as the

representative of an Irish constituency. Duffy is a Catholic, a man of
varied and remarkable experience in public affairs, and would be a
most valuable acquisition to the nationalists in council or Parliament.
The movement, as we have stated, is not merely confined to
Ireland. It is nearly as popular and has almost as many supporters in
England and Scotland; and in every liberal newspaper published in
those countries that reaches us we find reports of numerous
meetings in the principal towns and cities, and even villages, of
Great Britain. The English Catholic press particularly favor it, and this
adds greatly to its strength. A late number of the London Tablet says
in reference to the home-rule conference: “We can all know at
present what is demanded under the name of home rule; and we
may frankly say at once that we have been agreeably impressed by
the moderation and evident thoughtfulness which have presided
over the preparation and adoption of the various resolutions that
embody the proposed home-rule constitution. It is superfluous to
say that there is not a trace of revolution about them.... What,
however, is not superfluous to say is that the new programme of the
Home Rulers appears to us to have discarded with discrimination
almost everything which could prejudice their cause, and to have
retained almost everything calculated to render their project
acceptable to the British public and imperial Parliament.”
The Weekly Register, on the same subject, makes the following
sensible remarks:
“From Tuesday to Friday, both inclusive, hundreds of Irishmen
from the north and from the south, from the east and from the
west, Protestants and Catholics, alumni of Maynooth and of
Trinity College, met in the Rotunda to discuss the expediency
of demanding of the imperial Parliament such a modification of
the act of legislative union as will allow the people of Ireland to
manage their purely domestic concerns without in the least
interfering with matters of an imperial character; and during

these memorable four days, as we have already observed, the
most admirable temper was manifested and the most perfect
order [pg 067]maintained, or rather observed; for the
chairman had throughout only to listen like others and put the
question. The principal, if not the sole, ground of difference of
opinion was the constitution of the domestic Parliament. To
some members of the conference the House of Lords seemed
a difficulty. Undoubtedly there cannot be in these realms any
Parliament without a House of Lords, and there ought not to
be. Equally certain is it that differences—serious differences—
will sometimes arise between the Irish peers and the Irish
commons. But does nothing of the sort ever occur in the
imperial Parliament? Yet, notwithstanding the dissensions,
occasionally of a very violent character, that happen between
the Houses at Westminster, the constitution works and the
business of the empire is done, not always in the best fashion,
we admit, but still so to keep the vessel of state well afloat.”
Many of the bishops and clergy in England, also, are warm
sympathizers, if not active advocates, of the proposed repeal, as the
following extract from a recent letter of the Rt. Rev. Dr. Turner, late
Bishop of Salford, will in part demonstrate. With regard to home
rule, writes that prelate, “it seems to me that some measure of
home rule for Ireland is certain. It is but a question of time and
amount. Parliament will, sooner or later, be obliged to grant it, if only
for the despatch of imperial business. A strong feeling prevails in
favor of large powers of local and municipal self-government even in
England, and the extension of this principle must inevitably come to
Ireland.”
We cannot but agree with the good bishop in his views of the
necessity of some change in the parliamentary system of the United
Kingdoms, at least as far as Ireland is concerned, and trust,
sincerely trust, that his predictions will be justified by events, and
that very quickly. With a home government, a denominational plan

of education, and a fostering public opinion for ability and native
genius, which would surely follow, that long-suffering but faithful
island might in the near future equal, or even excel, the glories that
shone around her in her first ages of Christianity.

Sonnet: Good Friday.
Behold the highest Good! there on the cross
'Tis pictured on a canvas so sublime
That God's own thought, conceived before all time,
Is fitly told; the universe at loss
To fathom it, its mighty forces toss
In darkened struggles that do wildly chime
In thund'rous mutt'rings with the monstrous crime
That man conceives; yet all the varied dross
Of nature's agitations but compose
The adjuncts to that central Form, where God,
Enthroned in pain, all suffering doth enclose
In one brief day, that never might be trod
A path more hard than that did interpose
'Twixt Pilate's hall and Calvary's blood-stained sod.
[pg 068]

Grapes And Thorns. Chapter X. The Descent of
Avernus.
By The Author Of “The House of Yorke.”
It was Annette who told Miss Pembroke the result of the trial, taking
it on herself as a sort of mission. Without saying a word on the
subject to each other, perhaps without defining it clearly in their own
minds, they had yet acted on an impression that she was to be
treated with peculiar delicacy and tenderness in the matter.
As young Mrs. Gerald came down the street toward her mother-in-
law's home, she saw Miss Pembroke approaching her slowly from
the opposite direction, a child at either side. She was just coming
from her school, and these two little ones lived in the neighborhood,
and were privileged to walk home with their teacher, each holding in
its little hands, for warmth, a fold of her large sable cloak.
It was a still, frosty day, with a sparkling depth of cloudless blue
overhead, and a spotless carpet of newly-fallen snow, white as
swan's-down, underneath. But the mid-air, rosy now with sunset,
imparted a tinge of violet to the sky and a soft blush to the earth.
Sleighs, with their gay bells, flew to and fro, the drivers muffled to
the eyes from the stinging cold; and the planks of the sidewalk
crackled under the steps that trod them.
“What a motherly look she has!” Annette Gerald said to herself, as
she stood waiting at the gate, and watching her friend.
Honora had quite a matronly appearance, indeed, in the thick furs
she always wore in winter. She was fond of warmth, and scarcely
quick enough in her motions to resist the cold of a northern climate

by means of exercise alone, and the cap, muff, boa, and mantle
made her look like a Juno exiled to the court of Odin. The cold
melancholy of her expression, the face as untouched with color as a
white camellia, was in keeping with the fancy.
She did not hasten when she saw a visitor waiting for her, nor give
any smile or word of welcome. If there was a sign of emotion, it was
in the slight gesture with which she detached herself from her two
little attendants, who, for the first time, missed the leave-taking they
prized so much. They had been wont to be stroked on the cheeks,
with a gentle “Good-by”; and, running, hand in hand, down the
street, to turn at the first corner, and see their teacher wave her
hand to them as she stood on the piazza.
“My dear Annette, why did you not go in, instead of freezing here in
the snow?” she said, and seemed too much occupied in opening the
gate to be able to look in her friend's face, though her disengaged
hand held that of her visitor closely.
“Oh! I never feel the cold in this still weather,” Annette said lightly.
“Besides, I do not like to enter alone a deserted house. There is no
one here but the servant. Mamma Gerald is with us, and we
persuaded her to stay to dinner. I wish you would go up too.”
[pg 069]
They had entered the house. Miss Pembroke paused a moment at
the foot of the stairs, then led the way up to her chamber. Evidently
she knew that there were tidings for her, and suspected that they
were not good. “I shall not dine at home to-day,” she said, catching
sight of the servant.
But she did not, apparently, mean to go out, for she deliberately
removed her wrappings, and put them away; then seated herself
beside her friend, and looked at her with an expression that bade
her speak out her errand, whatever it might be.
“It has gone as badly as it could,” Annette said quickly.

“He is, then, found guilty?” Miss Pembroke asked, without the
slightest sign of emotion.
Annette nodded. “He is convicted on circumstantial evidence. It is as
plain as such evidence can be, but not plain enough to shake my
hope, at least, of his innocence. Lawrence is utterly disgusted and
indignant with the whole affair. He says he would at any time head a
party to rescue Mr. Schöninger. He felt so angry that he wouldn't
stay at home after coming up to tell us, but started off again
somewhere.”
“Is he sentenced?” Miss Pembroke asked, speaking with some
difficulty.
“Yes!” And since the eyes fixed on her still waited for more, Mrs.
Gerald added: “There is a year solitary.”
Honora's eyes opened a little wider. “A year solitary?” she repeated.
“Why, yes, dear. You know it is the custom to give a year of solitary
imprisonment before....”
Miss Pembroke put her hand up, and seemed to clear some mist
from before her eyes. “Before what?” she asked in a confused way.
“Dear Honora!” exclaimed her friend, “need I say what?” And then
started up with a little cry; for Miss Pembroke, without a word or
sign of warning, had slipped out of her chair, and fallen heavily to
the floor.
It is not necessary to make an outcry because a lady has fainted,
unless there is no person of sense present. Annette Gerald did what
was needful without calling for help, and her efforts were soon
rewarded. The cold hand she held suddenly became warm and moist
as the recoiling wave of life rushed back, and in a few minutes Miss
Pembroke was able to rise from the floor, and go to the sofa.

Annette sat by her in silence, now and then touching her hand or
her hair with caressing fingers, and waited for her to speak.
If she had to wait some time, it was not because her friend had not
returned to full consciousness. Miss Pembroke was too strong and
healthy to creep back to life, even after so violent and
unaccustomed an attack. It was, perhaps, the first time she had ever
fainted, and she was left almost ignorant of what had happened to
her; but of the cause she was not a moment in doubt. It came back
clearly on the first wave of returning consciousness. She lay with her
eyes closed, and strove to set her mind in order again, and set it so
firmly that this terrible and entirely unexpected fact should not again
derange its action. She had not once anticipated such a conclusion.
Her thoughts had occupied themselves with the horrors of the
accusation, and the worst result she had looked for was that, though
the prisoner would doubtless be acquitted, [pg 070] he would not be
able to shake off the disgrace of having been suspected, and would
go out into life branded with an ineffaceable mark—a mark which his
name would bear even in her own mind. She had said to herself
that, pity him as she might, she desired never to see him again, not
because she believed him capable of any great crime, but because
his image would always be associated with painful recollections, and
because his dignity had been soiled by such circumstances and
associations. Now, however, he was presented to her mind in quite a
new light, more pitiful, yet with a pity far more shrinking and remote
from its object. In this woman, confidence in, and obedience to,
authority was an instinct; and as she contemplated the decision of
the law against Mr. Schöninger, she began to look on him somewhat
as a Catholic looks upon those whom the anathema of the church
has separated from the fellowship of the faithful, “so that they are
not so much as to say to them, God speed you.” A silent and awful
distance grew up between them.
After a while, she sat up, and began calmly to put her hair and dress
in order.

“It is very terrible, Annette, and we may as well try to put it quite
out of our minds,” she said. “We can do nothing, that I see, but pray
for his conversion. I thank you for coming alone to tell me of this,
for I would not have had any other person see me so much affected
by the news. People imagine things and tell them as facts, and there
are many who are capable of believing that I had loved Mr.
Schöninger. I never did.”
There were times when Honora Pembroke's soft eyes could give a
look that was almost dazzling in its firm and open clearness; and as
she pronounced these last words, she looked into her companion's
face with such a glance.
Mrs. Gerald rose and walked somewhat impatiently to the window.
She had hoped and expected to startle Honora into some generous
expression of interest in Mr. Schöninger, and to win from her some
word of pity and kindness which, repeated to him, would be like a
drop of cooling water in his fiery trial.
“I am sure I should never imagine you capable of having an
affection for any one whom the whole world does not approve,” she
said rather pointedly, having snatched the curtain up and looked out,
then dropped it again. “If you can put the subject out of your mind,
and remember Mr. Schöninger only when you are praying for the
heathen, so much the better for your tranquillity. I am not so happily
constituted. I cannot dismiss the thought of friends because it
troubles me, nor because some person, or many persons, may
believe something against them.”
“What would you have me do?” Miss Pembroke asked rather loftily,
yet with signs of trouble in her face.
“Nothing, my dear, except that you put on your bonnet and come
home to dinner with me,” Annette replied, assuming a careless tone.
Miss Pembroke hesitated, then refused. It would be certainly more
sensible to go if she could, but she felt herself a little weak and

trembling yet, and disinclined to talk. The best distraction for her
would be such as she could find in reading or in prayer, if distraction
were needed. She felt, moreover, the coldness that had come over
her [pg 071] friend's manner more than Annette was aware, and for
a moment, perhaps, wrung by a cruel distrust of herself, envied her
that independence of mind and ardor of feeling which could at need
strengthen her to face any difficulty, and which rendered her capable
of holding firmly her own opinions and belief in spite of opposition.
Miss Pembroke seemed to herself in that instant weak and puny, not
because she did nothing for Mr. Schöninger, but because, had she
seen the possibility or propriety of her doing anything, she would
have lacked the courage. It was a relief to her, therefore, to find
herself alone, though, at the same time, she would gladly have had
the support and strength which her friend's presence could so well
impart to one in trouble.
The door closed, and she looked from the window and saw her
visitor walk briskly away without glancing back.
“I wish I had some one,” she murmured, dropping the curtain from
her hand, and looking about the room as if to find some suggestion
of help. “I am certainly very much alone in the world. Mother
Chevreuse is gone; I cannot go to F. Chevreuse about this; and the
others jar a little with me.”
And then, like a ray of soft and tender light coming unexpectedly to
show the path through a dark place, came the thought of Sister
Cecilia and her gentle companions. They had asked her to come to
them, if they could ever be of any use to her, and Sister Cecilia
particularly had spoken to her with an affectionate earnestness
which was now joyfully remembered. “I cannot hope to be to you
what Mother Chevreuse was, but I would be glad if I could in a little,
even, supply her loss to you. Come to me, if you ever wish to, quite
freely. You will never find me wanting in sympathy or affection.”
And she had scarcely been to them at all!

She dressed herself hastily, and called a carriage. It was too late to
walk there, for already the sun was down; and it was nearly two
miles to the convent.
The sharp air and brisk motion were restorative. They brought a
color to her face, and sent new life through her weakened frame.
Besides, when one feels helpless and distressed, rapid motion gives
a relieving impression that one is doing and accomplishing
something, while, at the same time, it saves the necessity of effort.
Sister Cecilia was in her own room, writing letters, her little desk
drawn close to the window for the light. She looked out when she
heard the carriage, and beckoned Miss Pembroke to come up-stairs
then hurried to meet her half way. She had guessed her visitor's
motive in coming, and it needed but a glance into her face to
confirm the thought.
“Come into my chamber, dear,” she said. “It is the pleasantest room
in the house at this hour. See what a view I have of the city and the
western sky. I sit here to write my letters, and every moment have
to leave off to admire the beautiful world outside. It is a sort of
dissipation with me, this hour of sunset. This arm-chair is for you. It
is my visitor's chair. I should feel quite like a sybarite if I were to sit
in it.”
She seated Honora by the window, drew up her own chair opposite
her, and went on talking cheerfully.
“I sometimes think that all the [pg 072] earth needs to make it
heaven is the visible presence of our Lord and his saints. It would
require no physical change. Of course I include the absence of sin.
There is so much beauty here, so much that we never notice, so
much that is everyday, yet miraculous for all that. Look at that sky!
Did you ever see such a rich air? It needs the cold purity of the snow
to keep it from seeming excessive.”

A long, narrow cloud had stretched itself across the west, and,
drawing to its bosom the light of the sun, now hidden behind the
hills, reflected it in a crimson flood over the earth. Through this
warm effulgence fell, delicately penetrating, the golden beams of the
full moon, changing the crimson of the air to a deep-opal color, and
putting faint splashes of gilding here and there beside the rosy
reflections.
“How the earth draws it in!” said the nun dreamily. “It never wastes
the beauties of the sky. It hoards them up, and gives them out long
after in marbles and precious stones. Did it ever occur to you to
wonder how those bright things could grow in the dark
underground? I used to think of it in Italy, where I first saw what
marbles can be. I remember my eyes and my mind wandering to
that as I knelt before the Confession of S. Matthew the Evangelist, in
Santa Maria Maggiore, where the walls of the atrium glow with
marbles; and the lesson I learned from it was this: that even though
pains and sorrows of every kind should intervene between us and
the joy of life as thickly as the clay, and rock, and turf had
intervened between the sunshine of heaven and the dark place
where those marbles took form and color, we could yet, if we had
real faith, be conscious of all the glory and joy taking place
overhead, and reproduce them for ourselves down in the dark, and
make that beauty more enduring because we were in the dark. At
the sunny surface, the brightness slips off and shadows succeed; but
that solid jewel in the depths is indestructible. My dear”—she turned
to her companion with a soft suddenness which warmed but did not
startle—“do you remember S. Paul's recommendation, ‘always
rejoice’? It is possible. And now tell me why you do not.”
Her eyes, beaming with religious enthusiasm and tenderest human
affection, searched frankly the pale face before her, and her hand
was laid lightly on Miss Pembroke's arm. No reserve nor timidity
could stand before her. They melted like snowflakes beneath the
heavenly summer of her glances. Honora told freely and simply what
had distressed her.

How sweet is the friendship of one true woman for another!—
sweeter than love, for it is untroubled, and has something of the
calmness of heaven; deeper than love, for it is the sympathy of true
natures which reflect each the entire being of the other; less selfish
than love, for it asks no merging of another into itself; nobler than
love, for it allows its object to have other sources of happiness than
those it can furnish; more enduring than love, for it is a life, and not
a flame.
“But can you not see, my dear,” the nun said presently, “that it would
have been better if you had not had any friendly intercourse with
him, even though this terrible thing had never happened? The
injunction not to be unequally yoked with one another refers, I [pg
073] think, to all ties as well as to marriage. The gulf is too wide
between the Christian and the Jew to be bridged over for familiar
friendship. It is too wide for anything but prayers to cross. Once
admit any intercourse with unbelievers, and you peril your faith;
and, besides, you cannot set a barrier firmly anywhere when the first
one is down. I have heard it said that this Jew loved you, and even
fancied it possible that you would marry him.”
“People ought not to say such things!” exclaimed Miss Pembroke,
blushing deeply.
“People ought not to have the chance to say such things, my dear
girl,” replied the nun. “It was offering you an insult when he offered
you his hand.”
“O dear Sister! is not that too severe?” expostulated Honora.
“Setting aside what has happened since, should I not recollect, when
a man makes me such an offer, what his intention is, and how the
subject looks to him? And cannot I refuse him, and see that it is
impossible for me to do otherwise, yet feel kindly toward him, and
wish him well, and believe that he has meant to show me both
affection and respect?”

“Honora,” said the Sister, “if any man had struck your mother, then
turned to offer you his hand, would you not have recoiled from him
in disgust and indignation?”
“Surely I would!”
“And is your God and Saviour less dear and sacred to you than your
mother?” the other pursued. “Can you allow your thoughts to dwell
with kindness and complacency on one who blasphemes the
crucified Redeemer, and calls him an impostor? Because you have
not heard this man talk against your faith, you forget what he must
think of it. I tell you they mock at him, these Jews, and they call us
idolaters. And what could he think of you, when, knowing that you
adore Christ as God, he asked you to be the wife of one who would
laugh, if he did not rave, when he saw you making the sign of the
cross? He must have thought your faith so weak that he could in
time make you renounce it. And the reason why he thought so was
because he saw you receiving him in a friendly way, as if friendship
were possible between you. I speak of what he was. What he is, we
have nothing to do with.”
Miss Pembroke's eyes were down-cast. “When you place the subject
in that light, I am forced to think myself all in the wrong,” she said.
“But most people do not think in that clear, positive way. They act on
an inherited motive, and their beliefs are moss grown, as it were.”
“They have no faith,” was the quick reply.
Honora was silent a moment, then said, with some hesitation: “I am
always afraid of being uncharitable and illiberal, and perhaps I err
the other way.”
“My dear, it is easy to make a mistake there, and very dangerous
too,” the Sister replied with decision. “What is charity? You must first
love God with all your heart; and if you do that, you will be very shy
of the enemies of God. You cannot serve two masters. As to
liberality, there is no greater snare. It is not liberal to squander the

bounty and honor of God; it is not ours to spend. It is not liberal to
praise those whom he condemns, and bless those whom he curses.
It is not liberal to love those who refuse to acknowledge and obey
[pg 074] him, and to contradict what he has clearly said. Or if these
things are liberal, then liberality is one of the worst of vices, and one
of the most futile too. Why, if I were to desire the reputation of
being generous, and, having nothing of my own, should take what is
not mine and give it away, I have stolen, it is true, and I have
obtained a reputation that I do not deserve, but, also, I have
enriched some one; whereas, if I put my hand into the treasury of
God, and try to bestow on another what he has denied, the hand
comes out empty. I have insulted the Almighty, and have not
benefited any one. Do not suffer yourself to be deceived by
sounding phrases. What are these people who talk so much of
liberality? Are they liberal of what is theirs to give? Far from it. Do
they give away all they have to the poor? Do they forgive their
enemies? Do they give up their pride and vanity, and spend their
lives in laboring for the needy? Quite the contrary. They are lavish
only of what is not theirs to give. It has been reserved for those
whom they call bigots to show an ardent and unsparing liberality in
sacrificing their private feelings, their wealth, their comfort, their
reputation, their lives even, for the glory of God and the saving of
souls. There is the true liberality, my dear, and all other is a snare.”
“I wish I could shut myself up with God, and get into the right path
again. I am all wrong.”
“Why not come here and make a retreat?” the Sister asked.
It was so precisely and unexpectedly what she needed that Honora
clasped her hands, with an exclamation of delight. “The very thing!
Yet I had not thought of it. When may I come? Very soon? It was
surely an inspiration, my coming here to-night.”
Immediately her troubles began to lift themselves away, as fogs
begin to rise from the earth even before the sun is above the

horizon. The certainty of approaching peace conferred a peace in the
present. She was going to place herself in the hands of Him who can
perform the impossible.
Sister Cecilia had supplied her need perfectly. Hers was not one of
those impassioned natures which need to be, soothed and caressed
into quiet. A certain vein of gentle self-sufficiency, and a habit of
contentment with life as she found it, prevented this. She wanted
light more than warmth.
It was already dark when they went down-stairs, and since, from
economy, the nuns did not have their entries lighted, the two had to
go hand-in-hand, groping their way carefully, till they came to a turn
in the lower passage; and there, from the open door of the chapel at
the further end, a soft ray of light shone out from the single lamp
that burned before the altar. By daylight both chapel and altar
showed poor enough; but in the evening, and seen alone by this
small golden flame, the imperfections were either transformed or
hidden. Dimly seen, the long folds of drapery all about gave a sense
of seclusion and tenderness; one seemed to be hiding under the
mantle of the Lord; and the beautiful mystery of the burning lamp
made wonders seem possible. Kneeling there alone, one could fancy
all the beautiful legends being acted over again.
Sister Cecilia and Honora, still hand-in-hand, knelt in the entry the
moment they saw that light.
“You remember the chalice of the bees?” whispered the nun.
[pg 075]
“I never come here in the evening, and see that bright little place in
the darkness, but I think of that sweetest of stories. And I would not
be surprised to hear a buzzing of bees all about the sanctuary, and
see the busy little creatures building up a chalice of fine wax, as
clear as an alabaster vase with a light inside.”

They walked slowly and noiselessly by the door, and, as they passed
it, saw beside the altar what looked almost like another lamp, or like
that illuminated vase the Sister had fancied. It was the face of Anita,
which reflected the light, her dark dress rendering her form almost
invisible. That face and the two folded hands shone softly, with a
fixed lustre, out of the shadows. No breath nor motion seemed to
stir them. The eyes fixed on the tabernacle, the lips slightly parted
where the last vocal prayer had escaped, she knelt there in a trance
of adoration. But one could see, even through that brightening halo
and sustaining peace, that a great change had taken place in the girl
during the last few weeks. Her face was worn quite thin; and the
large eyes, that had been like dewy violets bending ever toward the
earth, burned now with a lustre that never comes from aught but
pain.
“How the innocent have to suffer for the sins of the guilty!” sighed
the nun, as she led her visitor away. “That child has received a blow
from which I am afraid she will never recover. She is like a broken
flower that lives a little while when it is put in water. Her conscience
is at rest; she does not say now that she is sorry for having had
anything to do with that trial; she does not complain in any way. She
seems simply broken. And here she comes now! She has heard our
steps, and is afraid she has stayed too long in the chapel.”
The young girl came swiftly along the passage, and held out her
hands to Miss Pembroke. “I knew you were here,” she said, “and I
was waiting to hear you come down. Mother told me I might come
and say good-by to you.”
“But you have not yet said a word of welcome,” Miss Pembroke
replied, trying to speak cheerfully.
“Oh! yes, when I saw you come, I welcomed you in my own mind,”
she replied, without smiling.

Honora waited an instant, but Anita seemed to have nothing to say
except the good-by she had come for. “Our whispering did not
disturb your prayers?” she asked, wishing to detain her a little
longer.
“Oh! no.” She glanced up at Sister Cecilia, as a child, when doubtful
and lost, looks into its mother's face, then dropped her eyes
dreamily. “I do not say any prayer but ‘amen.’ Nothing else comes. I
kneel down, thinking to repeat, perhaps, the rosary, and I am only
silent a while, and then I say amen. It is as well, I suppose.”
Honora kissed the child's thin cheek tenderly. “Good-by, dear,” she
whispered softly. “Say one amen for me to-night.”
She went out into the still and sparkling night, and was driven
rapidly homeward. On her way, she passed the prison, and, looking
up, saw over the high wall a light shining redly through the long row
of grated windows. It was a painful sight, but no longer
unendurable. “No prayer but amen,” she repeated. “What does it
matter by what road we go, so long as we reach heaven at last;
whether it be in peaceful ways, or through sin and suffering?”
[pg 076]
Another carriage drew up at the gate as she reached home, and
Mrs. Gerald descended from it, having just returned from Mrs.
Ferrier's.
“Upon my word, young woman!” Annette's voice called out from a
pile of furs in the carriage. “We have been saying our good-nights in
whispers, and hushing the very sleigh-bells, so as not to disturb your
slumbers; and here you are out driving.”
Her bright and cheerful voice broke strangely into Honora's mood.
Was there, then, anything in the world to laugh about, anything that
could possibly excite a jest?

“Good-night, Mother Gerald!” the young woman added. “Don't stand
there taking cold. And if you do not see Honora in the house to-
night, make up your mind that I have carried her off with me, as I
shall try to. Come here, my dear, and give an account of yourself.
Where have you been?”
As Honora reached the carriage door, young Mrs. Gerald leaned out
and caught both her hands. “Come with me to find Lawrence,” she
whispered hurriedly. “He has not been home yet, but he will go for
you.”
Though recoiling from the errand, Miss Pembroke would not refuse
it. She stepped into the carriage, and suffered herself to be driven
away. It was the first time such a service had ever been demanded
of her. “Where is he? Do you know?” she asked.
“Oh! yes. He is only playing billiards,” the young wife answered, and
a sharp sigh seemed to cut the sentences apart. “It is the first time
for a long while, and I want to break it up in the beginning. John
went down and told him that his mother was dining with us, but
Lawrence paid no attention.”
She leaned back a little while without saying a word as they sped
over the smooth snow. “It seems a shame to drag you into such an
affair, Honora,” she said presently; “and I had not thought of it till I
saw you, and then it came like a flash that you could help me. What
I want of you is to write on a card that you and I are waiting for
him. John will carry it in to him, and he will recognize your writing.”
The horses were drawn up before a large marble hotel, lighted from
basement to attic. The shops underneath were all closed; but from
three broad lower windows a bright light shone around the heavy
lowered curtains, and in the stillness they could hear the faint click
of billiard-balls. There was no sound of voices from inside, and it was
impossible to know if the players were few or many.

Honora wrote hastily, by the moonlight, as she was bid, “Annette
and I are waiting for you,” and John took the card.
“Why doesn't he go to this door?” she asked, seeing the man
disappear around a corner of the house.
“You child!” said her friend compassionately; “are you so innocent as
to suppose that any one can walk into one of those places when he
pleases? These charming réunions are held with locked doors, and
one has to have the password to go in.”
Honora was silent with indignation. To her mind, Lawrence could not
do his wife a greater injury than in allowing her to become
acquainted with such places, and she was half disposed to be vexed
with Annette for not leaving him to himself, and refusing to be drawn
into any objectionable scenes and associations.
[pg 077]
Annette divined the last thought, and replied to it.
“It is impossible for a wife to be scrupulous as to the means by
which she shall withdraw her husband from danger,” she said with
quiet coldness. “They are one. If he is soiled, she cannot be quite
clean, except in intention, unless she is very selfish; and then her
intention is not good, which is worse yet. Of course she should be
careful not to draw others into her affairs.”
“You must know far better than I, Annette,” her friend said quickly,
feeling as though she must have spoken her thought. “At all events,
you cannot be called selfish. And, indeed, if the angels of heaven
were over-scrupulous with regard to their associations, we should
lack their guardianship.”
Here John appeared, walking briskly round the corner of the hotel,
and immediately after Lawrence Gerald came to the carriage-door.
“You here, Honora!” he exclaimed. “What could have induced you?”

“We had better not ask each other questions,” she replied coldly. “It
is late. Will you come home with us?”
She drew back into a corner, and made room for him, with an air
almost of disgust; for the moonlight showed his face flushed with
drinking, and, as he spoke, a strong odor of brandy had been wafted
into her face.
He was too much confused for anything but simple obedience, and
in rather a stumbling way took the seat assigned him.
“Honora has been driving this evening, and is sleepy and chilly,” his
wife made haste to say in explanation, inwardly resenting her
friend's hauteur, and regretting having brought her. “She is going
home to stay all night with us. I am sure you did not know how late
it is.”
She furtively picked up his hat, that had fallen off, went on talking
lightly, to cover his silence or prevent his saying anything senseless,
and tried in every way to screen him from the scorn that she had
exposed him to. He leaned back in the carriage, and took no notice
of her. The presence of Honora Pembroke had confounded him, and
he had just sense enough left to know that he could not keep too
quiet. What had stirred her to interfere in his affairs he could not
guess, for Annette had always so screened him that it never
occurred to him she could have asked her friend to come. Had he
known, it would have fared hard with his wife. He had, however,
prudence and temper enough to keep him from making any
disagreeable demonstration. John was at hand when they reached
home, and, as the ladies went hastily up the steps and into the
house, they were not supposed to be aware that it was his arm
which enabled Mr. Gerald to go in without falling. Then Mrs. Ferrier
stood in the open drawing-room door, and, under cover of her
welcome to Honora, he managed to get up stairs unnoticed,
fortunately for all.

For the truce between Annette's husband and her mother was over,
and their intercourse was assuming a more unpleasant character
than ever. Now, it was nearly always Lawrence who was the
aggressor. Even when Mrs. Ferrier showed a disposition to conciliate,
he found something irritating in her very good-nature. Partial [pg
078] as his mother was, she was moved to expostulate with him
after witnessing two or three of these scenes.
“You ought to recollect her good intention, Lawrence, and try to
overlook her manner,” she said. “I know well she does not show very
good taste always; but you cannot criticise a woman in her own
house.”
“I am seldom allowed to forget that it is her house,” returned the
son rather sulkily.
“At least, my dear, do not provoke her into reminding you of that,”
Mrs. Gerald urged.
Lawrence wished to stand well with his mother, and had, indeed,
improved in his behavior toward her in proportion as he had grown
more impatient with Mrs. Ferrier. He seemed now to regret having
answered her unpleasantly. “If you knew, mother, all the little
annoyances I have to bear from her, you wouldn't blame me so
much,” he said coaxingly. “With other frets, she has a habit of asking
any of us who may be going out where we are going, and when we
are coming back; and Annette has humored her in that till she thinks
she has a right to know. Teddy always tells her, too; but then he tells
lies. That makes no difference, though, to her. Well, I have broken
her of asking me when I am alone; but if Annette is with me, she
asks her. Can't you imagine, mother, that it would get to be irritating
after a while? It makes me so nervous sometimes that I have really
skulked out of the house slyly, as if I had no right to go. And then,
when I come in, she will say, ‘Why, where have you been, Lawrence?
I didn't hear you go out.’ If a door opens anywhere, she goes to see
who is about. I believe if I should get up in the middle of the night,

and try to creep out of the house without being heard, I should see
her head poked out of the chamber-door before I'd got half-way
down-stairs. Then she peers and finds out everything. Annette and I
had a bottle of champagne the other night in our room, and the next
morning she spied out the bottle, and spoke of it. I suppose she
heard the cork pop when I drew it. You never looked after me half
so closely when I was a little boy, always in mischief, as she does
now I am a man. She knows what my clothes cost, every rag of
them, and how many clean collars and handkerchiefs I have in the
week.”
“I am sure she need not trouble herself about how much your
clothes cost, since you pay for them yourself,” Mrs. Gerald said, her
face very red. “And if she grudges you clean collars, send your linen
home, and I will have it washed there.”
“Oh! she has no such thought,” Lawrence made haste to say. “She
doesn't mean to be cross about any of these things, but only prying.
She wants to overlook everybody and everything in the house, and it
annoys me. I only tell you so that you may not wonder if I do speak
out now and then about some small thing. Then what do you think
she has proposed about my going into business?”
“Well?” Mrs. Gerald said uneasily.
“She has selected a partner for me.”
His mother waited for an explanation.
“And who should it be but John!”
“John who?” asked Mrs. Gerald wonderingly, trying to recollect [pg
079] some notable person of that name among her youthful
acquaintances.
“Why, I do not know that he has any other name. The big English
fellow who lets you in here, and waits at dinner, and opens and

shuts the carriage-door.”
“What! you do not mean the footman?” Mrs. Gerald cried.
Her son laughed bitterly. “I asked her if he was to open the shop-
door, and carry parcels, and if he would have the same sort of
cockade on his hat, and she got quite angry about it. She says he
has saved a good deal of money, and means to go into business,
and she thinks I couldn't have a better partner. What do you think of
it, mother?”
Mrs. Gerald leaned back in her chair, and put her hand up to her
face, half hiding a blush of vexation.
She was not willing to tell Lawrence all she thought of the matter.
“What does Annette say?” she asked.
“Annette vetoed the proposal up and down. I've heard nothing of it
for a week or more. I only told you because you seem to think me
too difficult.”
Mrs. Gerald sighed. She had hoped to see her son busy and
contented after his marriage, and she found him only more idle and
dissatisfied than before. With the partiality of a mother, she tried still
to find him unfortunate instead of blameworthy, and, rather than see
any fault in him, looked only at his difficulties, refusing to recollect
how easily he could now overcome them all. She fancied erroneously
that to suggest to him that his trials had a good deal of brightness to
relieve them, would be to show a lack of sympathy and tenderness,
and that the best way to comfort him was to let him see that his
annoyances showed in her eyes as misfortunes. It was a mistake
which, in her over-sensitive affection, she had always made with
him.
His wife acted otherwise. “There is no use in anticipating evil,
Lawrence,” she said. “Perhaps that may be the means of bringing it
about. Fortune loves a smiling countenance. As to mamma's plans

and wishes with regard to John, the best way for us is to assume
that it is impossible she should ever regard him as anything but a
servant. And, indeed,” she concluded with dignity, “I think she never
can do otherwise.”
But this assumption did not prevent young Mr. Gerald from going
privately to F. Chevreuse, and begging him to interfere and try to
bring her mother to reason; and perhaps Mrs. Ferrier was never so
near being in open revolt against her pastor as when he undertook
to show her that there were certain social distinctions which it was
her duty to recognize and respect.
“I think, F. Chevreuse,” she said stiffly, “that a priest might do better
than encourage pride and haughtiness.”
“He could scarcely do worse than encourage them,” he replied
calmly; “and it is precisely against these sins that I would put you on
your guard. Persons are never more in danger of falling into them
than when they are complaining of the pride of others, and trying to
reform what they conceive to be the abuses of society and the
world. The only reformer whom I respect, and who is in a
thoroughly safe way, is that one who strives to reform and perfect
himself. When he is perfect, then he can begin to correct the faults
of others. Moreover, the established customs and distinctions of
society have often a [pg 080] good foundation, and are not lightly to
be set aside. What would you say if your chambermaid should insist
on sitting down to dinner with you and driving out with you?”
Mrs. Ferrier found herself unprepared to answer. Indeed, no lady
could be more peremptory and exacting than she was with all her
servants except John. She was not yet ready to explain that her
generalities all had reference to one exceptional case.
“But John is not at all a common servant,” she ventured to say. “He
never lived out but once before, and then it was with a very grand
family in England; and he wouldn't have come here with us, only

that he wanted to look round a while before setting up business. I
had to coax him to come, and give him the very highest wages. And
Annette did all she could to persuade him.”
“John is an excellent man, I am sure,” F. Chevreuse replied. “I hope
he will succeed in whatever good work he attempts. But we were
speaking of your daughter's husband. My advice is that he return to
the office where he was before, and remain there till something
better presents itself. I do not approve of any large and showy
enterprise for him. It would not suit him. In that office his salary
would be enough to render him quite independent, and leave him a
little to lay up.”
“Lay up!” repeated Mrs. Ferrier, with an incredulous circumflex.
“He will put one-half his income into his wife's hands, and she can
do as she will with it,” F. Chevreuse replied. “Annette has spoken to
me about it, and it is his own proposal. She will put the money in
bank every month. What he keeps will be his own affair, and what
she takes will be a small fund for the future, and will relieve a little
that painful feeling he must have in living here without paying
anything. It is decidedly the best that can be done at present.
Besides,” he added, seeing objection gathering in her face, “it may
save you something. The young man is not to blame that he is not
rich, and he is quite ready to take his wife home to his own mother,
and Annette is quite willing to go, if necessary. They might live there
very happily and pleasantly; but as, in that case, Lawrence would be
the one on whom all the expense would fall, I presume you would
make your daughter an allowance which would place her on an
equality with him.”
Mrs. Ferrier was forced to consent. Nothing was further from her
wish than to be separated from her daughter, not only because she
was more than usually solicitous for Annette's happiness, and wished
to assure herself constantly that her husband did not neglect her,
but because she had an almost insane desire to watch Lawrence in

every way. Nothing so piques the curiosity of a meddlesome person
as to see any manifestation of a desire to baffle their searching. The
annoyance naturally felt and often shown by one who finds himself
suspiciously observed is always taken by such persons as a proof
that there is something wrong which he is desirous to conceal.
Moreover, John had let fall a word of advice which she was not
disposed to disregard.
She had been complaining of her son-in-law.
“You had better let him pretty much alone, ma'am,” the man replied.
“You'll never drive him to being a sober fellow, nor industrious.
Scolding doesn't mend [pg 081] broken china. I have a plan in my
mind for them which I will tell you after a while, when the right time
comes. He wouldn't thank me for it now; but by-and-by, if he doesn't
drink himself to death first, he may think my advice is worth
listening to.”
John had a quiet, laconic way which sometimes impressed others
besides his mistress, and she did not venture to oppose him openly,
nor even to insist on hearing what his mysterious plan might be.
It was, altogether, a miserable state of affairs, one of those
situations almost more unbearable than circumstances of affliction,
for the cares were mean, the annoyances and mortifications petty;
and the mind, which is ennobled by great trials, was cramped and
lowered by the constant presence of small troubles which it would
fain disregard, but could not. For, after all, these small troubles were
the signs of a great one threatening. It was plain that Lawrence
Gerald, if not stopped, was going to kill himself with drinking. His
frame was too delicately organized to bear the alternate fierce heats
and wretched depressions to which he was subjecting it, and more
than one sharp attack of illness had given warning that he was
exhausting his vitality.

F. Chevreuse came upon him suddenly one day when he was
suffering from one of these attacks. The priest had called at Mrs.
Ferrier's, and, learning that Lawrence was in his room, too unwell to
go out, went up-stairs to him somewhat against Annette's wish.
“I will take the responsibility,” he said laughingly. “The boy wants me
to wake him up; you women are too gentle. You are petting him to
death. No, my lady, I do not want your company. I can find my own
way.”
And accordingly Lawrence opened his eyes a few minutes later to
see F. Chevreuse standing by the sofa where he lay in all the misery
of a complete physical and mental prostration.
The priest drew a chair close to him, taking no notice of the evident
disinclination of the young man to his society. “Now, my boy,” he
said, laying a hand on the invalid's shrinking arm, “are you dosing
yourself up to go through the same bad business again? What has
come over you? Come! come! Wake up, and be a man. You are too
good to throw away in this fashion.”
The young man turned his face away with a faint moan of utter
discouragement. “I am not worth bothering about. I've played my
stake in life, and lost, and what is left is good for nothing. Besides, if
I tried, I shouldn't succeed. Why do you trouble yourself about me?
I tell you that what there is left of me isn't worth saving.”
He spoke with bitter impatience, and made a gesture as if he would
have sent his visitor away.
F. Chevreuse was not so easily to be dismissed.
“The devil thinks differently,” he remarked, without stirring. “He is
fighting hard for you. Rouse yourself, and join with those who are
fighting against him! You have an idea that, because you have made
mistakes and committed sins, you must lay down your arms.
Nonsense! There are all the lives of the saints against you. Some of

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