Her
tender, sympathetic heart could find excuse for a brother who would not
learn Latin because even as a child his heart was set upon becoming a
painter. We know how he succeeded, but it is not always one's early
desires are fulfilled so completely as they were in Paul's case.
It was in the evening of the very same day on which Louise championed
her brother's cause that we find her almost heart-broken, yet bravely
hiding her own grief and comforting her younger sisters and brothers in
a terrible affliction, the most terrible that can overtake a family of
young children. This was the sudden death of the beloved mother, who had
been an invalid for some time. The father was a drunken sot, who had
fallen into heavy slumber even while his dying wife was uttering her
last request to him on earth; this was that he would make an artist of
the young Paul, instead of a lawyer, as was his intention.
The next day, while preparations were going on for the funeral, the
brutal husband sought refuge from remorse in the bottle, so that for the
most part of the day he was hopelessly drunk. In this emergency Louise
(who was only fifteen) took the direction of affairs into her own hands.
The little ones had been crying all day for their mother, and would not
be even separated from the corpse. They were inconsolable, and at last
the youngest sobbed out, "Who will be our mother now?"
At this question Louise arose, and said, with deep and solemn
earnestness, "I will!"
There was something in her manner which struck the children with wonder.
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