Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1877-09-14
AFTER DARK,

We used to think, even before we loved
her so much, that Mrs. Dalrymple was
representation of charming old age that
might have made poets celebrate it in
stead of youth. Her brown eyes were
still as soft and large, if not as bright,
as ever; and although the rings of her
hair round her smooth brow were silvery
white, her brows and lashes were vet
dark. But it was none of that, nor the
soft skin with the delicate rosy bloom
that sometimes dIffused it, that made the
charm of the face; it was the soulful ex-
preston there, and the smile sweeter
than any young girl knows how to smile
"a smile full of innocence and love.
Her life had not been very happy one,
we used to fancy, she having had some
serious cross in her youth, and afterward
marrying a man whom she did not very
tenderly love, because he loved her, and
who ended by abusing her. She had
been now for several years widow
without children, spending her consider
able fortune in kindness, and making
all the young people in the region her
staunch adherents.
She lived at The Cedars, and some one
or the other of US was always with her,
and it would be hard to say where
pleasanter life could be lived than all
day long in Mrs. Dalrymples gardens or
behind her horses, and all the evenings,
with the breath of roses and honeysuckles
about the windows, in her delightful
drawing-rooms, listening to her old contes,
or to the talk of by-gone days in which
her contemporaries indulged when they
became her guests.
Among these guests occasionally wes
Mr.. Stephen, an elderly person who had
come into the neighborhood some years
before, and who lived on the next place,
where only hedge divided the lands-a
strange, sad, silent old man, concerning
whom, as nobody knew anything, every.
body conjectured everything. Some
said he was an Englishman, some that
he was New Zealander; it was general
ly conceded that he had suffered great
calamity; and here and there even it was
declared that in a distant State he had
been imprisoned under life sentence,
but pardoned out for quiet behavior
after fifty years, taking then the property
which it was in his power to take, and
coming here. Peaceful and gentle as he
giving freely to whomsoever. asked, he
was yet generally avoided, and, as he
sought no one, his life was solitary. He
had had occasion to look for a lost pet
on Mrs. Dalrymple's grounds, which had
led to an acquaintance that he so lit
tie followed up that sometimes she her
self would take one of US and go over in
to his garden, and often she would tap
on the long window, and saying, gayly:
Privilege of an old .womanp insist on
bring him home TO dinner.
She had done SO to-day; for we had
surprised her-flve homeless girls whom
she had at last made permanently at home
with berself-in an unwonted shower of
tears in the morning, tears that continued
with more or less force all day. 81 must
have something now to brighten me-"
said she. Let us go and get Mr.. Ste
phen. We will have an OnleLette rOum.
There was Omelette rOum ON the table fifty
three years ago, remember now. 1t is
one Of my anniversary days, to-day, my
dears."
"Hine lila IGerim@," said we, wiping
the dear lady's face and trying to make
her smile. Somehow we always felt as
II she were our own age.
Yes, it is one of my anniversary days,
to-day" said she again, after dinner, ss
we all sat in the drawing room about her,
Mr.. Stephen not far away in his arm
chair. "It is so long ago that il often
seems 10 have been something | once
read Of rather than once lived and felt
and sufered-O yes, sufferedl l fancy
that bright young girl with her lovers is
in romance. / can think of it all with
out suffering now; yet, Just for the pity
OF 1t, just as you cry over a novel, you
know, 4 could not help shedding few
tears to-day"
" Was il SO very sad, thenS" one Of us
ventured.
All very. And we were all so young.
i will tell you about IL; | always said /
would! l do not mind speaking Of it
nowi 4 Is all as II were speaking of
some one elsei They were three broth
ers, she said, after moment, "and they
were all my lovers, as said; but some |
times have doubted II he loved me as
he loved those brothers of his, half a |
dozen years their senior. He had been |
father and mother 10 them, and he com
passed heaven and earth for .heir wishes.
All, wei, WE'LL SO noble being never
lived before. Greater love hath no man