FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44  
45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   >>  
pt for an annual visit from his bishop, and occasionally one from a pilot or sea captain, M. Bois le-Duc seldom heard news of the outer world. On the whole, his life was not an unhappy one, and certainly not idle. Most of the hours not spent in parish work were occupied in perfecting the education of several of the young men in whom he was interested. With Noel McAllister he took special pains. Whether the results were satisfactory in this particular case may be doubted; still he did what he considered best, and left the issue to Providence. In Marie Gourdon, too, he took a great interest. Her mother had died when she was scarcely six months old. Her father had never troubled his dull head about her; and, after she left the convent at Rimouski, she led a very lonely life for so young a girl. There was much to interest even such a cultivated man as M. Bois-le-Duc in Marie Gourdon. She had inherited from her mother a remarkable talent for music, such as many of the French Canadians have strongly developed. Her soprano voice was powerful, clear and flexible, and her ear was very correct. The good cure judged that, if given proper training, and the advantages Paris alone could afford, the little Canadian girl might become an artist of the first rank. But how send her to Paris? The thing seemed impossible. Where was the money to come from? True, M. le cure had been well paid for his last review in the Catholic Journal, but he had exhausted this money in sending Eugene Lacroix, another _protege_, to Laval for a twelvemonth. Alas now his treasury was empty; his cupboard was bare! This evening he was thinking all these matters over, when suddenly he was roused from his meditations by the voice of Julie, his old housekeeper, calling out: "M. le cure, there is a gentleman asking for you at the door." "For me, Julie, at this hour? Who is he?" "Not a Frenchman, that is very certain, monsieur; I should think not, indeed; his accent is execrable;" and the good woman lifted her hands with a gesture of despair. "Could you not understand what he wanted?" asked the priest. "No, monsieur; the only word I could make out was '_la coore_,' so I thought that might mean you." "Well, well," said M. Bois-le-Duc, laughing, "the best thing is for me to see him myself." He went out into the tiny dark passage where Mr. Webster and his clerk were standing. "Good-evening," he said, in his polished courtly manner. "I must apolo
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44  
45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   >>  



Top keywords:
monsieur
 

interest

 

Gourdon

 

mother

 

evening

 
treasury
 
twelvemonth
 

protege

 
Webster
 

matters


passage

 

suddenly

 
Lacroix
 

thinking

 
cupboard
 

manner

 
impossible
 
courtly
 

sending

 

standing


roused

 

exhausted

 

polished

 

review

 

Catholic

 

Journal

 

Eugene

 

priest

 

wanted

 

Frenchman


understand

 
gesture
 

despair

 

lifted

 

accent

 
execrable
 

calling

 
housekeeper
 

gentleman

 
thought

laughing
 

meditations

 
flexible
 
special
 

Whether

 

results

 
satisfactory
 

McAllister

 
interested
 

Providence