The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-09-13
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 cele-
brate it instead of youth. Her brown
eyes were still rs soft and large if not
as bright, as ever; and although the
rings of hair round her smooth brow
We're silvery white, her brows and lashes
were yet 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 expression 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 q very hap
py one, we used to fancy, she having had
some serious cross in her youth, and af
terward marrying 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 a widow
without children, spending her consider
able fortune in kindnesses, and making
all the young people i'll the region her
stanch 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. Dalrymple's garden or
behind her horses, and all the evenings,
with the breath of roses and honeysuck-
les 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 was
Mr.. Stephen, an elderly person who had
come into the neighborbood 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 coniectured everything. Some
said he was an Englishman, some that
he was an New Zealander; it was gener-
ally 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 quite behavior af-
ter 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 whomsoever asked, he
was yet generally avoided, and as he
sought no one, his life was solitary. He
had had occasion to look for lost pet
on Mrs. Dalrymple's grounds, which had
led to an acquaintance that he had SO lit
tie followed up that sometimes she her
self would take one of us and go 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 hersef-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. I" Let us go
and get Mr.. Stephen. We will have an
Omelette rO,tnap. There was Onaeiette
rounap ON the table fifty-three years ago
to-day, 1 remember now. 1t is one of
my anniversary days to-day, my dears. +"
"Hinc iACe &scrinaB," said we, wip-
ing the dear lady's face and trying to
make her smile. Somehow we always
felt as if she were our own age.
"Yes, it is one of my anniversary days
to-day" said she again, after dinner, as
we all sat in the drawing-room about
her, Mr.. Stephen not far away in his
armchair. "It is so long ago that it
often seems to have been something l
once read of rather than once lived and
felt and suffered-oh, yes, suffered ! L
fancy that bright young happy girl with
her lovers is romance. can think of
it all without suffering now; yet, Just
for the pity of it, Just as you cry over
novel, you know, L could not help she'd
ding few tears to-day"
"Was it SO very sad, then ?" one of
us ventured.
"Ah very. And we were all SO
young 1 will tell you about it; al
ways said 1 would. 1 do not mind
speaking of it now; it is all as if 1 were
speaking of some one else. They were
three brothers," she said, after mo-
ment, "and they were all my lovers,
and II loved the eldest. He was my
lover, as l said; bnt sometimes l have