VAL SINESTRA
VAL SINESTRA
By
MARTHA MORTON
New York
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
681 Fifth Avenue
Copyright 1924
By E. P. Dutton & Company
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the United States of America
VAL SINESTRA
BOOK I
BOOK I
1
ABOUT twenty-five years ago, Pedro Gonzolabought that handsome brown stone residenceat the corner of Twelfth Street and FifthAvenue, and presented it to his bride on their weddingday. As the name implied, they were ofSpanish origin, and known as devout Catholics, supportingthe Church spiritually and materially.
Shortly before Julie was born, her father diedsuddenly, stricken down with heart failure. Theyoung widow was stunned by the loss of her handsomeadoring husband; her uncontrollable griefnearly cost her the life of her coming child, who sufferedfrom her mother’s anguish—at least that’swhat the good Dr. McClaren said.
After her great misfortune Mrs. Gonzola gaveup the world and devoted herself to her religion andthe care of her little daughter. Julie was sent to theConvent of the Sacred Heart in Seventeenth Street.The Sisters educated her under the personal supervisionof her mother; their reports were satisfactory;[2]the child was docile and receptive, butinclined to emotional exaggeration; she would remainin the chapel long after the other children hadleft, and once they found her prostrate before theVirgin in a state of ecstatic self-oblivion, whichended in a fit of hysteria. There was no cause forworry, as otherwise she was “full of life” and ageneral favorite. Mrs. Gonzola tried conscientiouslyto impress her daughter with the dignity ofher wealth, social position, and family distinction;but as the girl grew into a woman, there was anever-present irritating sense of failure.
Julie Gonzola at sixteen, with her brilliant exoticbeauty, was a mystery to her friends, her mother,herself. She was acutely conscious of strange emotions,which she instin