The Argosy — page 375: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

352 The Curé’s Sister. VIT, ‘‘T rHoUGHT she would have told us herself,” said the Curé. ‘I would never have believed that I.éonie would have left it to another. to tell us such a tale as this.” ‘‘ And how could she go without a leave-taking ?” cried Madame Valmine, weeping. ‘‘ Gabriel and I have always loved her so dearly ! Surely it 1s bitter to part without a word. ‘The mother who was ashamed of her, the noble friends who forsook her, will never love her as we do.” I had my own thoughts, but I buried them in pitiful silence, and a thousand pleadings should not have torn them from my soul. So I let them blame Léonie, and I did wot say: ‘‘ The girl has done this for your sake, and her heart is breaking.” The Curé was very pale, and his eyes, as he looked at me, were full of keen reproach. ‘Ts this Léonie’s own doing?” he asked. ‘I fancied her heart was generous and noble. I did not think that hers was a spirit to be blinded by sudden wealth. Alas! for the deceitfulness of riches !” He turned away his head to hide from me his emotion, but I saw the quiver of his lip, and the shadow of pain on his brow. ‘Can the love of so many years be forgotten in a day?” cried Madame Valmine, wringing her hands passionately. ‘‘Can a child be so ungrateful? Oh, Léonie ! Léonie!” I was roused now into taking her part ‘Why do you doth mistake her ?” I said, angrily. ‘‘ She loves you— she is dying of grief—she leaves you only for the sake of a holy duty. Do you know that her mother—her ow mother, has knocked in vain at the door of her heart, these two years past? And she has borne her anguish in bitter silence, never grieving you by a word. Which would she have chosen if she could?—this poor cottage, or yon stately chateaue Remember that for two years, of her own free choice, she has stayed beneath this lowly roof, brightening it with her presence, when she should have gladdened her mother’s home. Whose tears has she wiped away ?—yours or hers? For whom has she spun and toiled ? For whom has she sung and smiled? Was it not for you, and not for that sorrowful, lonely lady yonder, who would have given all her wealth for one of her child’s smiles and kisses—lavished daily upon you?” “True, true,” said the Curé. ‘‘ Mother, we are wrong ; we are un- reasonable. Léonie does but her duty in obeying her parents.” ‘But without a farewell,” sobbed Madame Valmine. ‘ Why leave me without a farewell? JI could bear the parting, if she had fallen on my neck and kissed me before she went.” ‘And had she not a reason?” I cried, warmly. ‘‘Can you not believe, that she who has been generous all her life long is most generous now, when she leaves you abruptly without a word ora kiss? _ I tell Gomichbooksnco