The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-04-17

gance and display of the second empire.
Nor did she fail to carry out her inten-
tions toward her parents in America.
She sent them, year by year, out of her
slperabundance, enough to keep the
wolf from the door. Nor was the dukes
promise to Oscar forgotten. The boy
was established in n well-known banking
house after year or SO of additional
schooling.
But there were times when, in spite
of all this, Hida De Bonne Fortune asked
herself whether her grand marriage bad
been worth while! To be sure, she had
not been guilty of the baseness of marry
ing for her own mere meat and raiment,
wearisome experience how infinitely less
were these than the demands ofthe soul.
1t bored her to death to be fine lady.
1t seemed to her that she was very
ghost of her former self; that that had
died long ago, when she had closed the
door upon the real things of life-the
art she had surrendered, the mutual
love she might have worn like crown.
She grew quiet and pale, and her hus-
band noticed it, and reproached her for
it fretfully. Had he not married her
for her youth and freshnessp She must
exert herself; she must go into the
world; she must dress in manner be-
fitting her station. He did not choose
his wife to be dowdy. When he re-
preached her he dropped the mask of
his smooth gallantry. He was as out
spoken and as rough and coarse as though
he had not been educated in the foremost
of modern civilizations.
The poor little duchess was in despair.
Whom was there to turn to? She
against the hard, cold world! There
was q church not far off. A fancy
seized her to go there. She had seen her
mother come out of church sometimes
with n wonderful look of peace on her
face. She might might find peace too.
She took her maid with her-since she
never more went quite free now-and
strayed into the great, quiet cathedral.
She dropped down on her knees. She
thought of storm, and of voice that
came in the storm, and of the calm that
followed. And presently there was a
calm with her.
A calm, and strength that is only
born of calm. She went about her ways
serenely; she ruled her kingdom beauti-
fully. If she had made grave mistake,
she did not sit down with folded hands
in its shadow. Poor little soul! she had
strayed into hades; but she became the
light, the tranquil moonlight, of the
place.
In day of unfaith and of materialism
and of mammon worship, she was true
to her own ideals of goodness and lowell
ness. She never lost her childlike ma
ture, her innocence, her simplicity.
The worldly men and women about her
treated her with certain Multiplying
reverence.
So she made her peace with life, with
nature, as the pagans would have said,
and as we Christians still may phrase it,
with q devouter and more tilial signifi-
canoe.
But in so making her reconciliation
she must also find her way back to her
old place in the heart of the bright-faced
little woman across the ocean who had
sent her forth so reluctantly to her mar
ried life. She had written to her mother
cold and studied letters during the first
months of her married life; it was not
until she had conquered her disappoint.
ment and her loneliness that she could
write to her as she used to talk to her,
with the outpouring of her heart.
One evening Mt crowded reception al
her hotel, a tall. fair man, with the
slightly stopped shoulder; of the student
made his way through the throng, and
hesitating slightly, bowed presently over
her hand.
81 was by no means sure it was you
Madame DE Bonne Fortune" Dr.
Douglass said. And in truth she wa'
sufficiently altered to have made recogni
ton difficult. She had lost her fresl
color; the mild rose bloom had giveI
place to the pallor of the lily. Their
was an outlooking patience now in he
eyes, and there wereshadows under then
that told of sleepless nights and restles
days. But if the luster of her youthfu
. beauty was dimmed, perhaps the splen
: dor of the setting sufficed to max
? amends. Her palace was very splendid
her toilette was triumph in its way
3 her fair head was diademed with dia
e monds. She looked the queen that sh
was in the world of fashion.
| q seem to be in dream" DR.. Doug
e lass went on; "or rather it seems to m
1 that it must have been in dream tha
: : we once took country rambles togethe
I down shady lanes, and gathered viii
1 flowers, and rowed about in boat, an
a did various other rustic things. Part {
the dream was that you wore a whit
!. straw hat trimmed with scarlet poppie
4 Your dress is trimmed with scarlet POI
n pies tonight, see.n
: "Poppies are said to be the flowers
dreams. AS far as that goes, this seer
S tonight is the dream for me. / am n,
e accustomed to my grandeur yet; it is sti
d unreal. Oh, DR.. Douglass "-drOppir
e her voice" how is my mother? Wht
! did you see her ?"
), Poor little queen there were tears
T her eyes. Looking into her earnest fac
and SO into the soul behind it, it did il
It deed appear as though her fine cloth
= and her Jewels were mask, and
II though she were holding court in vel
d table place of shades. DR.. Douglass h;
n thought hard things of her; he had call
> her a mercenary wording. He took
lie all back now; he forgave her; he pitt
her.
l. After that, Hilda never rested un
er she had seen her mother face to fat
ID Her conversation with DR.. Dougls
he brought W the past so yividly that s
t. could not be satisfied without So in t
an spring she crossed the Atlantic, with /
of little retinue of man and maid, two ye'
d, after her marriage.
ne She knocked at the door of the shah
T. little house she used to call home, Ii
to one evening. 1t was May. In the ty
C. light gloom she could distinguish fan
Id lar flowers in the small garden-heart
We ease and daffodils. She stopped a
u; plucked daffodil, her favorite flow
:" as she waited for them to open the do
ok Its fragrance carried her straight bach
es' her happy, hopeful girlhood. 1t brou!
ed up such look to her face that when
re- mother caught her to her arms prese
ct ly, it seemed to her that her Hilda
life never been away at all.