'miss mary beth , she was in a trance of sorts it was deep grief i saw in her eyes as she came down the aisle after the coffin she had the children with her , but it was a faraway look i saw in her eye 'course her husband was n't with her , no , not him judge mcintyre never was with her when she needed him , or at least that 's how i heard it he was dead drunk when old mr juhen passed , they could n't even wake him up , though they shook him and threw cold water on him and stood him up out of the bed and on the day of the funeral , the man was nowhere to be seen at all heard later they 'd carried him home from a tavern on magazine street it 's a wonder that man lived as long as he did ' sister bridget marie 's view of carlotta 's affection for her sister has been corroborated by many witnesses , though of course richard llewellyn would not have agreed there are several accounts of juhen 's funeral , and in all of them , carlotta is mentioned as holding on to her sister , and even wiping her tears in the months following juhen 's death , lionel left school altogether and he and stella went to europe , with cortland and barclay , making the atlantic crossing on a great luxury liner only months before the outbreak of the great war as travel in continental europe was all but impossible , the party spent several weeks in scotland , visiting donnelaith castle , and then set out for more exotic climes at considerable risk , they made their way to africa , spent some time in cairo and alexandria , and then went on to india , sending home countless crates of carpets , statuary , and other relics as they went along in 1915 , barclay , sorely missing his family , and very weary of traveling , left the party and made the dangerous crossing back to new york the lusitama had only just been sunk by a german u-boat , and the family held its breath for barclay 's safety , but he soon turned up at the house on first street with fabulous stories to tell conditions were no better six months later when cortland , stella , and lionel decided to come home however , luxury liners were making the crossing in spite of all dangers , and the trio managed to make the journey without mishap , arriving in new orleans just before christmas of stella was then fifteen years old .