THE THREE MISSES FARQUHAR The Storyteller

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 39, 26 September 1907, Page 3

THE THREE MISSES FARQUHAR

The Storyteller

(Concluded from last week.) „,' What is the result, Cicely '! ' .she,/ cried, as Miss Cicely descended, .first.- ' Everything is quite right. Sister Barbara will tell you,' answered Miss Cicely, passing her sister without pausing on her way into the house. 1 Come^in," Catherine,', said Miss Barbara. ' I have " some of {he silver here, and the rest will follow,- " The silver is of no consequence in comparison with what 1 have to tell you.' t ' No consequence ! ' echoed Miss Catherine, following her sister into the house in amazement. Her practical nature their re-asserting itself, she demanded if they, had taken 1 , tea. ' I'll call Cicely clown in a moment, 'then, before 1 hear a w.ord, for you must be fainting,' she said, when Miss Barbara told her that they had omitted that important addition, to their welfare. 'Wait, sister Catherine,' said Miss Barbara, putting but ,a detaining hand. ' Don't call Cicely down, nor go to her ; let her alone.' / ' Is Cicely ill '! ' demanded Miss Catherine sharply. ' No, but she must not be disturbed,' Miss Barbara replied. 'Just sit down and let' me , tell you what .has happened.' ' The more happens, the more need there is of keeping up her strength. If you think she would rather not see me I'll have her tea taken up to her, and yours' brought in here,' said Miss Catherine. ' And Barbara,' she added, coming back after she had given the order, ' I wish you would tell me as quickly as" possible what is the matter, for I hate mysteries,' " and -Miss Catherine sat. down to conceal the fact that she was trembling. . ■ ' Squire Ledyard iret us at the station,' Miss Bar- . bara began, ' and took us immediately to the courtroom. Here we were not detained long, for we' both instantly recognised Lhe man in custody as Abel, and identified the silver they had recovered. "" We started to leave the court, and Cicely was walking just behind me, when suddenly she grasped my arm very tightly, and I felt her tremble. Of course it frightened me, and I turned to see what") was the matters, when I saw for myself what it was." I declare, sister Catherine, I wasn't a bit better than Cicely when I lopked around and saw Stephen Hartwell.' ' Stephen Hartwell ! '- Miss Catherine gasped. „ ' Yes, sister Catherine,' Miss Barbara went on, stirring her untasted tea very hard. 'Stephen Hart- 1 well. He's changed considerably, but I knew him' at once. He looKed as pale as a sheet, but he spoke - to us, and I suppose some one answered,' though I declare I d6n't know one thing about it. I found myself on the street, but I don't remember getting there, and I heard "him speaking, but the first words I made sense of were Cicely's. " I did write, but you never answered," she was saying, " and then Caleb Stone saw you, or said he had, and told me you were, married, and then— l tried to forget you." "And, sister Catherine, Stephen just ' stopped short in the street, looked at Cicely, and said, with his teeth shut, "The —something bad— liar,", and I don't believe it will , count against him, for a liar like that really must be.' The nearest that gentle Miss Barbara had ever come to swearing. ' ' Well, after that Mr. Hartwell took us to the hotel, and asked me if I minded waiting there, while lie and Cicely., took a walk. Of course I was expected to say no, and I Said it, so they went. ' I waited an hour and a half, and when they came back I saw that Cicely had been crying, but she looked peaceful, and. had a light in her eyes that I . had not seen there since, she was twenty. 'We lunched 1 together, and spent the afternoon; what there was of it, seeing some of the sights, but - they did , not tell me one thing. '"■Still when he put us on the .train, Stephen held v my hand, and he said, " Barbara," just as he- used to . do*' " Barbara," he sisd, ."if I come to Brentford in a few '"(lays will you,\make me -welcome ? ' 1 And I said : ".If you had 'cared to- come the old welcome would have always been waiting." ."I have cared to come, but Ithought'l .was forbidden," he answered. " Good-bye, » then, for/ only a few days,"' and he wrung my hand so hard,, it cached for an hour.' ' Cicely would", not talk at all coming ihome ; she ' only said : " Don't ask me,- Bab, dear ; in the morning I will tell you all. Now I can .only tell. you two things. One is, that Stephen has become' a Catholic,

and the other is that I did- not know there was such happiness left on earth." You know' she used to call me Bab when 1 look her to school, twenty-five years ago. And. now I do not know, I. am sure, what ,is coming next, sister Catherine,- 1 said Miss Barbara, as she ended her story, 'but I cannot help thinking that it is .all: going to be made right at last, and it does seem to me when the Lord; brings two people together like that, He will take care that the resulf is a good one.' ' s Miss Catherine raised her head - and showed her face bathed in tears, a most unusual thing with her. 1 O-oodness knows,' she said,i ' J have no wishes for myself, but I have prayed every day these fourteen years for happiness for Cicely, and I could not reconcile myself to its not comings For no matter, how hard she tried Lo be brave, the sadness of her face -' has pierced my heart every day. - When I have heard people say Ihere was no such thing as true love in this world, I have looked at little Cicely, and wished • they spoke the truth. If the dear Lord will recompense her for her patience and constancy, He will have no more grateful creature than I will -be,' said Miss Catherine, drying her eyes, and expressing herself as usual with a turn of words that belied her tenderness and reverence. In the promised few days Stephen came, and he- and Miss Cicely walked again through the old orchard and quiet streets, forgetful of the lapse of years. The robins and orioles sang as sweetly above . their heads as in their early youth ; the sunshine was as warm, the grass as green. The years could not rob Miss Cicely of the* beauty which was hers, and souls who love purely both God and man, partake even in this world of a little of His beauty in Whom i is no shadow of alteration.' 1 Well, no,' Miss Catherine said to the neighbors. ' I don't know that I can exactly say that Cicely is re-engaged to Stephen Hartwell, for they have been engaged all along ;- the only trouble was that they did not know it. There is not much real romance in' the world, nor of real love, either, for that matter, but one case such as this is enough to keep alive the faith of a whole neighbothood, I think. Yes, they are to be married in two months. There is not anything to, wait for ; he is a rich man now, and they have had a rather 'long engagement, take it altogether. I could not make any objection to their marriage in August, so then it will be.' It _was a very simple wedding. They brought the old-fasnioned fragrant flowers from the garden, and adorned the church. They broke branches of Miss Cicely's own natal ekn, and made a bower for her to stand in. Miss Barbara plucked q-uantities of the tall white August lilies and filled the quaint vases, reserving the best and purest for her sister's wearing, saying that other brides might wear orange blossoms; lilies were for their Cicely. Then they opened every door and window, and let into the old house all the glorious 'outdoors, the delicious air, the song 'of birds, and the distant hills and background. •We want to see the hills to-day,' said Miss Catherine, in her tearful joy growing poetic. ' They seem like suitable witnesses to a wedding where love has enSured as "theirs has.' .They' dressed Miss Cicely in her mother's wedding gown, and pinned the snowy lilies in the falling yellow lace on her .breast. As she stood before the old priest, at the altar of the little church, with her sisters close at hand, every one said they had never seen a face so lov'i > For joy lit_ up the clear, shining eves, and took the place of patience there, and when the few words had been spoken, and the. Mass was ended, Miss Catherine and Miss Barbara felt, as they drank in with their loving eves the happiness and beauty of their darling's face, that they gave her up with joy, and were more than satisfied to live jon alone together in the old ' house, no longer three, but two Misses Farquhar.— c - San ' Francisco Monitor.' ' *