Katherine Barry. A novel

Front matter

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Chapter I

It was commencement day at Plainfield Seminary. A bright June morning, with not a cloud to fleck its perfect sky, had ushered in the long-looked-for day. A lazy northwest breeze, loaded with fragrance of near-by garden flowers and a suggestion of distant daisies and buttercups, stirred the leaves of the great elms and maples shading the seminary grounds and rippled the ivy, almost covering with leafy panoply, the old gray walls of the seminary building. From a flagstaff above the bellfry, the blue and red of “old glory” gleamed in the clear sunlight and, above it, a long streamer in light blue and yellow, the seminary colors, gave a festive air to the staid ensemble. Along the wide porch and out upon the lawn, groups of schoolgirls in holiday apparel were discussing the coming events of the occasion, while others ran in and out completing their preparations for the part each was to take in the exercises of the day. At one end of the long porch, two girls were leaning upon their arms over the railing, talking to a third who stood upon the ground outside. They wore the badge of the

KATHERINE BARRT* graduating class and were evidently in that state of mind peculiar to young candidates for commencement honors, wherein gladness and suppressed excitement control alternately, according as one condition or the other is favored by the moment’s situation.

“ Well, Kate,” said one of those upon the porch, “ do tell us where you got those lovely locust blossoms ! Isn’t it rather early in the season for them ? I did not suppose they blossomed before the first of July.”

“ Nor did I,” spoke her companion, “indeed I suspect these never grew hereabouts — there is something foreign in their appearance, although,” as Kate held up a spray under their faces, “ I must confess their fragrance is a dear, familiar — my! they are just too sweet for anything!”

Whereupon Kate broke two sprays from the branch in her hand and gave one to each of the girls as if to divert their inquisitiveness, but that only stimulated their curiosity, for, fastening the blossoms at their bosoms, they again besought her to tell whence came the flowers and who sent them.

“Well, girls,” said Kate, “there is nothing foreign about these flowers, I assure you. Mr. Harmon got them for me from a young locust tree out there upon our own seminary grounds. It stands in a sheltered corner at the south side of the stable, and for that reason, I suppose, it blossoms so early.”

“ Oh, yes,” chimed the girls together, “ we should have guessed as much. Really, Kate, your candor, though, is charming.”

“ Thank you,” replied Kate, bowing low in mock deference and making a sort of military salute with her branch of locust flowers. “Your compliment is most gracious.”

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“ There is Mr. Hannon now!” said one of the girls in tones somewhat subdued, as she glanced toward the street.

“ Where ?” inquired her companion, looking about and turning to observe the direction of vision taken by the other in making the discovery.

“ Don’t you see him ?” she replied, in a tone of pseudo-impatience and with a playful push upon the shoulder in the direction she would have her look. “ He has just come through the gate with the tall gentleman in a gray suit.”

Kate had turned to look in the direction given, but the lawn in front was, by this time, so thronged that, from her lower position, she did not at once see either gentleman. Raising herself on tiptoe by pulling with one hand on the railing, she looked, for a moment, over the heads of the people and, as she dropped back to her place, said: “Why, that is Judge Sheldon, who is to hand us our diplomas to-day.”

At this announcement the girls both turned at once with interested gaze, and for a minute, looked toward the gentlemen in silence. Then one of them, turning again to Kate, drew a long and not altogether artificial sigh as she said: “ Dear me ! how I wish it was all over- My composition has become so commonplace to me that I am quite ashamed of it, and last evening I made some changes in it that seem to improve it — but, I don’t know; and just as likely as not. I’ll stumble when I come to the altered places. If it had only been ”

Whatever she was about to say was interrupted by her companion turning excitedly toward her and Kate saying in a loud whisper: “ They are actually coming this way !”

Kate stepped around the porch corner and saw the gentlemen approaching. Mr. Jlarmon perceiving her.

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lifted his hat and, upon drawing near introduced the judge. Kate bowed, introduced her classmates, and then turning to Mr. Harmon reminded him that she was under obligations for the judge’s acquaintance already — since the evening before.

At this moment Mr. Dabney, the principal, having perceived the judge, came over quickly from a group near the main entrance, greeted him cordially and led him upon the porch, whence, after a few moments’ delay in conversation, both disappeared within the seminary. The girls, as if suddenly conscious of impending obligations, excused themselves and hurried up to their desks. Kate and Mr. Harmon walked over to a rustic seat built around the base of a great maple, a little apart from the throng, where they seated themselves as Mr. Harmon, fanning himself with his straw hat, said: “ Miss Barry, I am glad of an opportunity this morning to apologize for the freedom with which I criticized Dr. Belden’s sermon last evening. You know that I take radical views of religious questions generally, but perhaps you were not prepared to hear the immortality of the soul discussed quite so freely. The doctor, in his sermon on the great question in his text: ‘ If a man die, shall he live again,’ gave us so little that is new and assumed so much as beyond question, that, whether in disappointment or resentment, I went further than I would in stating my belief, or perhaps my disbelief.”

“ Indeed Mr. Harmon,” replied Kate, “ I have thought a great deal of what you said last evening, and I must confess the more I think of it, the more shocked I am. I can not understand how any one can permit himself to doubt, in these days, what all ages and all people have held in some form. It seems to me that you can hardly be serions in making such assertions, Mr, Harmon,

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ir

Really, it does not, for while I know what yonr view of religious belief, in general, is, because you have so often talked to me about it, I never before heard you say anything that led me to believe that you really doubted im- ■ mortality.” As she uttered these last words, Kate’s voice and manner gave intimation of emotional disturbance, and Mr. Harmon, noticing it, placed his hat upon the seat beside him and turning toward Kate said in tones of penitence and conciliation :

“ I regret very much that I said anything to disturb your notion of right. Miss Barry, and I beg that you will think of it no longer. When I came over early this morning expressly to see you and to learn whether I had unintentionally left a hurtful impression by my talk last evening, as you know. Miss Benton was with you, and when I suggested the search for locust blossoms, my purpose was wholly to disengage you from her so that we might talk more freely, but you know how entirely I failed.’’ Then, as for a bit of diverting pleasantry, he added: “What a simple old soul she is! When I said that I feared the dew would wet through her slippers if she accompanied us over the lawn, you know how confidently she asked us to wait while she ran up to her room for a pair of shoes !”

Kate smiled as he said this, but before she made reply the chapel bell began to ring and she arose from her' seat with a little start. , Mr. Harmon arose also in a half- reluctant way, and, hat in hand, accompanied Kate as she hurried to the library door, at the north side, where he bade her good-morning, and, going around to the front, he soon became one of the throng moving up the steps and into the seminary chapel where the exercises of the day were to be held.

Chapter II

Mr. Harmon was of ordinary stature and about twenty-five years of age. His hair was black, his eyes darkbrown and his complexion pale. His head was large and well-proportioned, and his face, wide at the top, seemed narrow below because of a disproportionately narrow and prominent chin. His mouth was rather wide and his lips thin. He wore no beard, but his hair was allowed to grow long and was brushed back over his ears. He was a student-at-law in a Plainfield office, and expected to be admitted to practice in the ensuing autumn. He was the only son of his parents, who were old residents of Plainfield and well to do. They had one daughter, six years his junior, who was a member of the graduating class at the seminary of the year previous. He took an active interest in politics, and had won a local reputation for eloquence throughout his native county. He was popular and esteemed for his talents and for his excellent character. He was generally known as fond of argument, a ready, ardent advocate of any cause for principle, and as one of the “best read ” men in the country. In religious matters he was regretfully looked upon as rather inclined to freethinking by the more pious people of Plainfield, but such view of him worked little injury to the high regard and almost paternal pride they took in him. He had been elected president of the village for two succeeding terms, had been a county supervisor, and was one of the trustees of the seminary, and influential in introducing some modern element into its old, conservative management,

KATHERINE BARRY.

Plainfield Seminary, although one of the oldest educational institutions in the country, had never developed beyond the “ home boarding school for a limited number of girls.” It was founded many years before, when the country was yet new, by two elderly maiden sisters who had come, no one ever knew why, into the wild country of this region from the vicinity of Boston. In the first year of their arrival, these ladies impressed the rude settlers of the hamlet with a most deferential regard for their genteel manners and superior qualifications. They were very dignified and reserved, and dressed somewhat after the manner of Quakers. The elder was a little “peculiar,” and many tales are yet told by the older dames of the village of the queer doings of stately old Miss Batty. That she was something of an artist is evidenced by a dingy oil painting in an ancient gilt frame, bearing in a corner her initials and the date 1821, which hangs to this day at the top of the second stairs in the rear hall of the seminary. The younger sister was organist at the Presbyterian church during the thirty-eight years of her residence in Plainfield, and it is said of her that she was never absent from her place in the organ loft in all that time but on one occasion. On that Sunday morning her favorite tabby, to escape a pursuing dog, had ran up a tree, and Miss Helen had become so exercised over the slow and difficult matter of getting the cat down again that she ignored all lesser considerations, and devoted the half of God’s day to undoing the dog’s work.

The seminary had its beginning in a “ select school ” which the Batty sisters had opened in the second year of their residence in Plainfield at the solicitation of a few families, and, as time went by, owing either to the management and skill of the sisters or to the local demand

KATHERINE BARRY.

for such educational facilities, the school grew in usefulness and importance to the full stature of its present local eminence. In the estimation of the good people of Plain, field it had always stood in an atmosphere of moral respectability, and, although never identified with any religious denomination, the townspeople had early learned to confidently intrust to the pious personality of the Batty sisters the care and general religious guidance of their daughters. The character thus woven into its early growth, persisted through the changes of many years to the present time, and imparted to succeeding principals and teachers quite as much of moral and religious character as they brought to it. The Batty sisters lived to see the seminary an established and successful institution. Within a walled inclosure beyond the garden, at the south side of the orchard, two grass-grown graves mark the place where their bodies were laid years ago. Each year, on the twenty-fourth day of May, founder’s day, the graves are formally visited by teachers and pupils, and decorated with flowers.

The class of this year contained eight members, and was larger by one or two than any graduated in several years. It was also remarkable for the wide range it represented in the following features : first, in avoirdupois : Marcia Perkins weighed a trifle over two hundred pounds, while Nellie Jenks balanced the beam at seventy-one; second, in stature : Ada Bennett was five feet ten inches in height, while Julia Dow reached only four feet two inches; third, in complexion: Sarah Collins was a pronounced blonde, while Jennie Fergusson was as dark as a senorita ; and fourth, in religion : Katherine Barry was a Catholic, while the others were all members of some Protestant denomination. For the first time in its history, Plainfield Seminary included in its graduating

KATHERINE BARRY.

class a Roman Catholic. This, in itself was not, perhaps, noteworthy because the seminary was neither founded nor conducted under the auspices of any denomination, but taken in connection with the fact that heretofore the pupils had been uniformly protestant and that whatever of religious atmosphere pervaded its halls had always been distinctly of that faith, the presence of a Catholic now was suggestive of radical innovation. Furthermore, the seminary was about to confer its highest honors upon this solitary representative of that churchy Throughout the course Kate had stood at the head of her class, had won the medal established in the will of old deacon Seeley, years ago, for “ greatest proficiency in mathematics,” had secured the free scholarship offered by the Musical Conservatory at Springfield, and had been elected by her classmates to deliver the valedictory on graduation day. The honor thus conferred by her classmates gave evidence of her popularity, notwithstanding her religion. During her two years course at the seminary, whatever of antipathy was felt when she first came among them, had rapidly yielded to the subtle influence of her personality, so unobstrusive and yet so all-pervading. Her natural gifts, her proficiency and exemplary deportment had made her a favorite with her teachers and given her superior influence among the pupils. She was the daughter of a well-to-do farmer who was well known throughout the county. He had emigrated to this country from Ireland with his young wife upwards of fifty years before, cleared the land which he then purchased, and built thereon the first “ hewed log house ” in that section. On this same farm, two miles west from Plainfield, he had lived all those years, acquired a competence and reared his children, two sons and a daughter. At the time of which I write.

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his sons were married and settled in the West, a third having died in infancy. Kate, the only daughter and the youngest, was nineteen years of age. She was slightly above medium stature, slender and well proportioned. Her eyes were typically “ Irish blue,” her hair auburn and her skin of a milk-like whiteness that accentuated the damask of her cheeks. Her face was oval, her forehead high and her chin, though somewhat full, was well, formed. Her voice, clear and musical, was free of nasal tones; her movements and attitudes naturally graceful. She had grown up on her father’s farm favored by all the conditions so conducive to health of body and mind. The pure air, simple diet, regular hours and freedom from physical confinement had given her an admirable physique. The industry, sturdy honesty and simple aspirations of her father,*. the diligence, self-denial and piety of her mother had, by example and precept, united in endowing her with good sense, a kind heart and a large share of domestic virtue. In early girlhood, she had learned with her brothers upon the farm the methods of handling horses and the management of cattle. She was a fearless rider, and at sixteen years of age, had won the prize at the county fair for excellence in horsemanship. She knew, like an expert, the points in cattle, and could tell at a glance whether an animal was better adapted for beef or for butter. She was familiar with the different varieties of sheep and swine and poultry, and kiiev/ all the details of butter and cheese making, of canning berries and making pickles. She knew every wild flower of the country-side, at least by its common name, at what time it blossomed and where to look for it. She could tell the name, as she knew it, of any bird of that region at a momentary sight of its flight, or upon hearing a single note or the sound of its voice. All this

Katherine! barrv.

had come to her without purpose or special study — it was part of her growth, of her life. Her course at the seminary had now added the learning contained in books, had formulated and systematized her information and developed in her the confidence that comes with the acquisition of scientific knowledge.

During her stay at the seminary, she had become better acquainted with the townspeople through the social opportunities afforded by the school. She made many friends, and had not a few admirers among the young men of the village. Of these, John Harmon was most favored and the most constant in attendance. His success had become so marked before the end of the first year that his rivals had practically admitted his victory by leaving the field open to him almost exclusively. Reception days at the seminary always found him there with eyes and thoughts and words for no one but Kate, and on every other occasion when opportunity offered he was with her. His love making was so singular, though, that not even Kate knew, for a long time, whether he sought her because she was always an interested listener, or because he felt for her what no word of his had told and no overt act had manifested. It was plain that he liked to be in her company, and when there, to talk of matters philosophic, scientific or historic, and to engage her interest in such subjects. He was an omnivorous reader with a particular liking for metaphysical studies. When he discovered a book of any special merit, he hastened with it to Kate and without comment, requested her to read it. Such reading was often so heavy and obstruse that her interest awakened only when he discussed the matter with her afterwards. In those discussions he had unconsciously revealed little by little the condition of his mind with regard to faith, original i8

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sin, vicarious atonement and various other of the fundamental tenets of the Christian church. His apparent purpose to make no disclosures of his own conclusions with reference to such questions was not owing to any lack of moral courage, but was due, rather, to his consideration for the convictions of others. He had been carefully reared in the Protestant faith, and it was the hope of his mother and of a maternal aunt that he would grow up to be a minister of the gospel, so early did he manifest interest in religion, and seek information with regard to questions of religious belief. But later, while even yet in his ’teens, the boldness of his discussions and the freedom of his criticisms brought such pain and disappointment to those he loved, and caused such estrangement among some of his friends, that he learned a lesson in discretion and resolved, thereafter, to regard with more careful consideration the religious opinions of others. So well had he borne this in mind that, as stated heretofore, in popular opinion, he was regarded, in a general way only, as inclined to freethinking. To Kate, however, he had, without intending it, given a pretty accurate view of his mind, not only because they had read and discussed together books such as, in the nature of things, would bring this about, but also because, without admitting it to himself, his regard for Kate had developed such a degree of confidence that his reserve had become, consequently, relaxed. When the discussion touched upon dogma, as it sometimes did, the strength of Kate’s religious belief immediately asserted itself. She was a willing partner so long as the question was a scientific one or even religious in character, if it did not involve any element of faith or dogma. John Harmon early learned this, and consequently purposed to observe proper regard for her conscience. If, in the fervor of his argument he at times went too far, a gentle protest from Kate turned him quickly toward safer ground. She loved to listen to him, he was so earnest, so honest, so eloquent, his mind so stored with information, his heart so full of altruism. Had he been a conceited man, the homage of Kate’s eyes when at times she sat enwrapt, would have distracted his line of thought and turned him from his subject to the candid worship manifest in her beautiful eyes. But when he paused, it was only to obtain some expression of assent, some recognition of his conclusion. Her charms, however, were not lost to him — they were the beautiful setting for her more beautiful mind.

Chapter III

When John Harmon left Kate at the library door, she hurried upstairs to her room. As she reached the corridor at the top of the stairway, she saw her father and mother, who had just arrived, going in advance of her toward her room and, running after them on tiptoe till she overtook them, she threw her arms about their necks from behind and kissed them right and left.

“Oh! Katherine dear,” said her mother — she was always called Katherine at home — “ ye nearly frightened th’ life out o’ me. But I’m glad we found ye, fer I was af eared we were late an’ ye would be with the rest o’ thim goin’ up in th’ hall.”

“ In another half-minute,” replied Kate, “you would have to seek me there. Come,” she added, taking her mother’s wrap upon her arm, and leading her by the hand, “come, we must hurry, or we shall be late now, sure enough.” Thereupon she threw the door to her room open, and turning to her father who was following a little behind, said: “Come father,” and reaching him a hand, led him, following her mother 'into the room Taking her father’s hat, she placed it upon a table, and catching up a brush, with a few deft strokes brought his scant locks into presentable order. Meanwhile her mother, standing in front of a mirror, had taken off her gloves and was adjusting her hair and her hat to her apparent satisfaction. Kate took some manuscript from a drawer and some flowers from a vase and, as her mother turned from the glass, she fastened a rose upon the old [ 20 ]

KATHERINE BARRY.

lady’s bosom and said: “ Now, let us go,” and with her father on one arm and her mother on the other, they hurried along the corridor and upstairs to the chapel.

As they entered, Kate resigned the direction of her parents to an usher, and hastened over to the seats assigned to the graduating class at the right side of the platform. Her classmates were already in their places, and the audience, which filled the room to the walls, was just becoming settled. Upon the platform stood the principal with one hand upon the desk and the other nervously twisting and intertwisting his watch-guard as he glanced with anxious face here and there over the audience. In a semicircle behind him were seated the Rev. Mr. Cannon, pastor of the Presbyterian church. Judge Sheldon, county judge of an adjoining county, who was to deliver the diplomas and address the graduates. Dr. Crabtree, the leading physician and a man of local reputation as an ornothologist, and the members of the ^aculty : Miss Benton, Miss Hollis and Mrs. Dabney, (the principal’s wife. The exercises were opened with prayer by the Rev. Mr. Cannon, who made a long and verbose appeal for all and everything that could reasonably be included in a supplication on such an occasion. He was a little man with a disproportionately large head, which disproportion was increased by a very full beard. He spoke slowly, and with great deliberation and profundity of manner. He accompanied his utterances with great upturning of his face and upstretching of his neck, and had a way of side- shaking his head at important words and at the close of sentences.

After the prayer, there was a flutter of reanimated fans throughout the audience, and some shuffling and adjusting of chairs and the hurried entrance of a few who had lingered at the entrance, or arrived late. Music by the

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seminary quartette with Kate at the piano, soon harmonized all into good order and good feeling. Then, following in orderly succession, came the essays and declamations. When these had proceeded to about the middle of the programme, a most unlooked for thing happened. A dove, pursued by a hawk, as explained later by some boys outside, darted in at an open window, and after flying about the room, alighted upon the cornice over a door. The audience was suddenly thrown into some excitement, and there was, for a few moments, a good deal of confusion and some noise. Marcia Perkins, who was at the moment reading her essay, became very nervous, not having perceived the cause of the disturbance, and in her embarassment turned the leaves of her manuscript so fumblingly that some sheets of it slipped from her Angers and went fluttering across the platform, a few of them even out through the window. This brought her reading to an abrupt stop, and with her face like a peony, she turned first to one side and then to the other, and finally faced about toward the principal who arose, and taking her by the hand, led her toward her seat. After this interruption, the proceedings went on in regular order again to the end of the programme, when Kate delivered her valedictory with great credit to herself and no little pride to her parents, closing with these beautiful lines from Longfellow :

Faith overleaps the confines of our reason,

And if by faith, as in old times was said Women received their dead Raised up to life, then only for a season Our partings are, nor shall we wait in vain Until we meet again.”

Then Judge Sheldon arose and took his stand beside

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a table, upon which could be seen the little bundle of parchments tied with blue and yellow ribbon, while the members of the graduating class, at a signal from the principal, ranged up with cheerful promptitude, in a line at one side of the platform fronting him. As the principal called out the names, each candidate stepped forward and received her diploma from the judge’s hand, and backed into her place again with a countenance beaming with happiness and proud satisfaction.

This little ceremony finished, the graduates returned to their seats, and the judge, turning more and more toward the audience as he proceeded, delivered an address upon the influence of woman in the home, in politics and in the world’s history that would have adorned a much greater occasion.

At the close of the exercises, the audience crowded with great eagerness about the graduates to bestow congratulations, and about the judge to shake his hand and to tell him that his “ speech was as good as gospel.”

Chapter IV

One hot afternoon about a week after commencement, John Harmon was sitting at his desk in the law office of Smith and Ramsdale when a farmer wearing a drooping, broad-brimmed straw hat, walked in through the open doorway and said: “You’re Mr. Harmon, aint ye ?”

“ That’s my name,” answered Mr. Harmon.

“Waal,” said the farmer, “ as I wuz cornin’ past Doc Agenses’, his boy run aout an’ ast me to take this letter daown tew ye,” at the same time removing his hat and taking from it a red cotton handkerchief which he carefully unfolded till he extricated an envelope, and stepping nearer, handed it to Mr. Harmon.

“ Thank you — won’t you take a seat ?” said Mr. Harmon, motioning toward a chair as he proceeded to open the envelope.

“ No, thank ye,” replied the farmer, “ I’ve got to git back’s quick’s I kin to git ma hay in. I broke tew knives in ma machine this mornin’ an’ had ta come daown to git them an’ a butter ferkin, an’ then I’m goin’ back jist’s quick’s I kin git thar.”