Page:Notable Irishwomen.djvu/226

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
200
NOTABLE IRISHWOMEN.

Kavanagh's name in the British Museum Catalogue, yet strange to say, not one is to be had in the National Library of Dublin, in the country of the author's birth and of her love. "The Pearl Fountain, and other Fairy Tales," was written in conjunction with her relative, Bridget Kavanagh. For some years before her death, Julia Kavanagh was a valued contributor of short stories to the Argosy, then edited by Mrs. Henry Wood, and sub-edited by her son, Mr. Charles W. Wood. These tales were afterwards collected into a volume under the name of "Forget-me-nots," with a preface written by Mr. Wood. He gives in it an account of the death of Julia Kavanagh, which took place at Nice, in the South of France. He says:—"On Sunday, the 28th October, 1877, at five o'clock in the morning, Mrs. Kavanagh heard in the adjoining chamber the noise as of a heavy fall. She immediately rose from her bed, and proceeding to her daughter's room, found her upon the floor. Miss Kavanagh exclaimed in French, the language in which she usually spoke, "Oh, mamma, how silly I am to have fallen!" She was assisted back to her bed, doctors were called in, and by eight o'clock that morning the large beautiful eyes of Julia Kavanagh had closed in their last sleep. An aged mother, so blind as to be only able to distinguish light from darkness, was left to mourn a daughter from whom she had never been separated;