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Article CATHERINE CARMICHAEL; on, THREE YEARS RUNNING. ← Page 3 of 15 →
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Catherine Carmichael; On, Three Years Running.
And so it was settled . Peter Carmichael was a just man , m his way , but coarse , and altogether without sentiment . He spoke of the arrangement that had been made as he might have done of the purchase of a lot of sheep , not , however , omitting to point out that in this bargain he was giving everything and getting almost nothing . As a wife , Catherine might , perhaps , be of some service about the house ; but he did not think that he should have cared to take a wife really for the sake of the wife . But it would do . They could get themselves married as they went through Christehurch , ancl
then settle down comfortably . The brothers had nothing to say against it , and to John it seemed to be a matter of indifference . So it was settled . "What did it signify to Catherine , as no one else cared for her ? Peter Carmichael was a hard-working man , who had the name of considerable wealth . But he was said to be hard of hand and hard of heart , —a stern , stubborn man , who was fond only of his money . There had been much said about him between John and Catherine before he had come to Hokitika ,- —when there had been no probability of his coming . " He is just , " John had said , " but so ungenial that it seems to
me impossible that a human being should stay with him . " And yet this young man , of whose love she had dreamt , had not had a word to say when it was being arranged that she should be taken off to live all her future life with this companionship and no other I She would not condescend to ask even a question about her future home . "What did it matter ? She must be taken somewhere , because she could not be got rid of ancl buried at once beneath the sod . Nobody wanted her . She was only a burden . She might as well be taken to Warriwa and die there as elsewhere , —and so she went .
They travelled for two days and two nights across the mountains to Christchurch , and there they were married , as it happened , on Christmas Day , —on Christmas Day , because they passed that day and no other in the town as they went on . There was a further journey , two other clays and two other nights , clown nearly to the southern boundary of the Canterbury Province ; and thither they went on with no great change between them , having become merely man ancl wife during that day they had remained at Christehurch . As they passed one great river after another on their passage down Kate felt how well it would be that the waters should pass over her head . But the waters refused to relieve her of the burden of her life . So she went
on and reached her new home at Warriwa . Catherine Carmichael , as she must now be called , was a well-grown , handsome young woman , who , through all the hardships of her young life , still showed traces of the gentle blood from which she had sprung . And ideas had come to her from her mother of things better than those around her . To do something for others , and then something , if possible , for herself , —these had been the objects nearest to her . Of the
amusements , of the lightness and pleasures of life , she had never known anything . To sit vacant for an hour dreaming over a book had never come to her ; nor had it been for her to make the time run softly with some apology for women's work in her hands . The hard garments , fit for a miner's work , passed through her hands . The care of the children , the preparation of their food , the doing the best she could for the rough household , —these things had kept her busy from her early rising tdl she would go late to her bed . But she had loved her work because it had been done for her father and
her mother , for her brothers ancl her sisters . And she had respected herself , never despising the work she did ; no man had ever dared to say an uncivil word to Kate Baird among all those rough miners with whom her father associated . Something had come to her from her mother which , while her mother lived , — -even whde her father lived , — had made hor feel herself to be mistress of herself . But ad that independence had passed away from her , —all that consciousness of doing the best she could , —as soon as
Peter Carmichael had crossed her path . It was not till the hard , dry , middle-aged man had taken possession of her that she acknowledged to herself that she had really , loved John Carmichael . When Peter had come among them , he had seemed to dominate her as well as the others . He and he only Lad money . He and he only could cause aught to be done . And then it had seemed that for all the others there was a way of escape open , but none for her . No one wanted
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Catherine Carmichael; On, Three Years Running.
And so it was settled . Peter Carmichael was a just man , m his way , but coarse , and altogether without sentiment . He spoke of the arrangement that had been made as he might have done of the purchase of a lot of sheep , not , however , omitting to point out that in this bargain he was giving everything and getting almost nothing . As a wife , Catherine might , perhaps , be of some service about the house ; but he did not think that he should have cared to take a wife really for the sake of the wife . But it would do . They could get themselves married as they went through Christehurch , ancl
then settle down comfortably . The brothers had nothing to say against it , and to John it seemed to be a matter of indifference . So it was settled . "What did it signify to Catherine , as no one else cared for her ? Peter Carmichael was a hard-working man , who had the name of considerable wealth . But he was said to be hard of hand and hard of heart , —a stern , stubborn man , who was fond only of his money . There had been much said about him between John and Catherine before he had come to Hokitika ,- —when there had been no probability of his coming . " He is just , " John had said , " but so ungenial that it seems to
me impossible that a human being should stay with him . " And yet this young man , of whose love she had dreamt , had not had a word to say when it was being arranged that she should be taken off to live all her future life with this companionship and no other I She would not condescend to ask even a question about her future home . "What did it matter ? She must be taken somewhere , because she could not be got rid of ancl buried at once beneath the sod . Nobody wanted her . She was only a burden . She might as well be taken to Warriwa and die there as elsewhere , —and so she went .
They travelled for two days and two nights across the mountains to Christchurch , and there they were married , as it happened , on Christmas Day , —on Christmas Day , because they passed that day and no other in the town as they went on . There was a further journey , two other clays and two other nights , clown nearly to the southern boundary of the Canterbury Province ; and thither they went on with no great change between them , having become merely man ancl wife during that day they had remained at Christehurch . As they passed one great river after another on their passage down Kate felt how well it would be that the waters should pass over her head . But the waters refused to relieve her of the burden of her life . So she went
on and reached her new home at Warriwa . Catherine Carmichael , as she must now be called , was a well-grown , handsome young woman , who , through all the hardships of her young life , still showed traces of the gentle blood from which she had sprung . And ideas had come to her from her mother of things better than those around her . To do something for others , and then something , if possible , for herself , —these had been the objects nearest to her . Of the
amusements , of the lightness and pleasures of life , she had never known anything . To sit vacant for an hour dreaming over a book had never come to her ; nor had it been for her to make the time run softly with some apology for women's work in her hands . The hard garments , fit for a miner's work , passed through her hands . The care of the children , the preparation of their food , the doing the best she could for the rough household , —these things had kept her busy from her early rising tdl she would go late to her bed . But she had loved her work because it had been done for her father and
her mother , for her brothers ancl her sisters . And she had respected herself , never despising the work she did ; no man had ever dared to say an uncivil word to Kate Baird among all those rough miners with whom her father associated . Something had come to her from her mother which , while her mother lived , — -even whde her father lived , — had made hor feel herself to be mistress of herself . But ad that independence had passed away from her , —all that consciousness of doing the best she could , —as soon as
Peter Carmichael had crossed her path . It was not till the hard , dry , middle-aged man had taken possession of her that she acknowledged to herself that she had really , loved John Carmichael . When Peter had come among them , he had seemed to dominate her as well as the others . He and he only Lad money . He and he only could cause aught to be done . And then it had seemed that for all the others there was a way of escape open , but none for her . No one wanted