Chateau d'Or, Norah, and Kitty CraigHolmes, Mary Jane
General
Chateau d'Or, Norah, and Kitty Craig
Holmes, Mary Jane
American fiction -- 19th century; Americans -- France -- Fiction; Manners and customs -- Fiction
We kept with her after that, or Hal did, and I kept at a distance, and
talked with Madame Verwest, and romped with Arthur until we reached
Venice, and there, one moonlight night, Hal and Anna were married, and
we made the tour of the Grand Canal for a wedding trip, and the canopy
over the bride was of pure white satin, and in the soft, silvery
moonlight we sang the “Star-Spangled Banner,” our two boatmen joining in
the chorus with their sweet Italian voices.
That was long ago, and Hal Morton has a boy of his own now, and a
blue-eyed baby daughter, too, and he lives in one of the finest places
on the Connecticut river, and goes to Europe every year, and Madame
Verwest lives with him; and Fred has been through college, and is on the
Continent now; and Mary is married to a Methodist minister, and Mrs.
Strong is dead; and Eugenie—well, when the Commune swept over Paris,
Eugenie herself went into the street and cared for the wounded and
dying, and hurled a stone at a Frenchman who was attacking an American,
and kept him at bay, and got the young man into her own house, and
bandaged up his head, and called him “Sharles,” and asked him if he
remembered her.
Fred did remember her then, and staid with her till the fierce storm was
over and he was free to leave beleaguered and desecrated Paris and go on
his way to Scotland, where he found Hal Morton and Anna in their
beautiful home among the Highlands, not very far from Loch Katrine, and
so I finish this story of Chateau d’Or.
THE END.
NORAH.
I had crossed in the bright October sunshine from Calais to Dover
without once taking refuge in the close, pent-up saloon, which is like a
little purgatory when the waters of the Channel are stirred to their
depths, and the boat is tossed like a feather from one angry wave to
another. It was very quiet that day, and the sea was literally like
glass, with the sunshine falling so softly upon it. Nobody had been sick
except a fair young girl, with _bride_ unmistakably stamped upon her,
from her dainty traveling-dress to the trustful glance of the blue eyes
lifted so often and lovingly to the face of the young man beside her.
Once, when the boat rocked more than usual, she had turned white to her
lips, and, dropping her golden head upon the shoulder of her husband,
had kept it there in a weary, languid kind of way, while I speculated
about her, wondering who she was, and where she was going, and hoping
that the party of American girls, who seemed to monopolize and fill the
entire deck, would take note of her, and see that at least one of my
countrywomen had taste, and style and beauty combined.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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