Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1877-09-12
AFTER DARK.
From lIarper's razaar.

FROM laIpcI : IdHuaI.
Weuscd 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
instead of youth. Her brown eyes were
still as soft and large, if not as bright,
as ever and although the rings of hair
round her smooth brow were silvery
white, her brows and lashes we're yet
dark. But it was none of that, nor the
soft skin with the delicate rosy bloom
that sometimes sutiused it, that made
the charm of the face it was the soul
full expression there, and the smile
sweeter than any young girl knows how
10 smile-a smile full of innocence and
love. Her life had not been Il very
happy one, we used to fancy, she having
had some serious cross III her youth,
and afterward marrying a man whom
She did not very tendetly love, because
he loved her, and who ended by abusing
her. She had been now for several
wears a widow without children, spend
ing her considerable fortune in kind
nesses, and making all the young peo-
plc in the region her stanch adher-
entS.
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
Il pleasanter life could be lived than all
day long in Mrs. Dalrymple's gardens
or behind her horses, and all the even
ings. with the breath of roses and honey
Suckles about the windows, in her de-
lightful drawing-rooms, listening to her
old contes, or to the talk of by-gone days
in which her contemporaries INDUCED
when they became her guests.
Among these guests occasionally was
Mr.. stephen, an elderly person who had
come into the neighborhood some years
before, and who lived on the next place,
where only a hedge divided the lands
a strange, sad, silent old man, concern
ing whom, as nobody knew any thing,
everybody coniectured every thing,
Some said he was an Englishman, some
that he was q New Xealander it was
generally 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 a
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 was, living among his
birds and flowers, giving freely to whom
soevcr asked, he was yet generally
avoided, and as he sought no one, his
life was solitary. He had had occasion
10 look for a lost pet on Mrs. Dalrym-
pies grounds, which had led TO IN ac-
q%uaintance that he 50 little followed up
that sometimes she herself would take
one Of Us and 60 over into his garden,
and often she would tap on the long
window, and saying, gayly, Privilege of
an old woman ~ insist on bringing him
home to dinner.
She had done so to-day for we had
surprised her-we homeless girls whom
She had at last made permanently at
home with herself-in an unwonted
shower of tears in the morning, tears
That continued with more or less force
all day. Unjust have something now
70 brighten me-" said she. Let us go
and get Mr.. stephen. We Will have an
"oed17e ronni. There was omeefe rom,
IN the table fifty-three years ago to-day,
remember now. 1t is one of my ami
'or~ary days to-day, my dears,'
" Hiac Wc hcrimu," said we, wiping
PIE dear lady's face and trying to make
her smile. Somehow we always felt as
20 She We're NJ own age.
Yes, it is one of my anniversary days
.'-Jay,' said she again, after dinner, as
"e all sat in the drawing-room about
Per, Mr.. stephen not far away III his
armchair. d" 1t Is so long ago that it
often seems to have been something |
nice read Of rather than once lived and
.tt and suftered-oh, yes, suffered |
.-ncy that bright young happy girl with
1.I lovers : in a romance. can think
d II all without suffering now; yet, just
.r the pity Of it, just as you cry over a
novel, YOU know, / could not help she'd
"tlI q few tears to-day"
Wa 1t so very sad, them II of us
F.ntured.
An! very. And we were all so
.'Hngt viii tell YOU about it | al
ways said | would. | do not mind speak
-- OF 1t now it is all as if | were speak
-- u some else. They were three
..9thers, she said, after moment, and
-''l Were'all my lovers, and II loved
-e eldest. He was my lover, as | said
'1- sometimes | have doubted if he