The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1886-07-09


know.
She repeated very slowly:
$50 you are from Nancy?"
The man appeared at the door with
his tace lmpassive, as the faces OF dea
men are.
/ She observed:
''It makes no difference; he cannot
| hear"
After few seconds she spoke again
You know u great many people at
Nancy?"
why, yes-nearly everybody"
"The Saint -Allaize family?"
eyes, very well indeed. They were
intimate friends OF my father"
"What is your name?"
l told her my name. She looked
at me fxedly, and then said in that
low voice which always accompanies
recollection
Eyes, yes, remember perfectly we'll.
| And the Brismares-what has become
OF them?"
"They are all dead"
"Ah And the Sirmonts-do you
know them?'
"Yes. The last one is now a gen.
eral"
Then, all quivering with emotion
with aneuish-with | know not what
vague, powerful and sacred feeling
with | know not what desire to speak,
to tell everything, to avow all that
she had hitherto hidden away in the
very bottom OF her heart-to talk of
those whose mere name had SO agitat-
ed her, she said:
| "Ies, Henri de Sirmont, Iknow him
well. He is my brother"
And raised my eyes to her face,
startled with astonishment. And all
suddenly an old memory came back
to me.
Long years ago it had made a great
scandal in Lorraine. A young girl,
| beautiful and wealthy, Suzanne de
Sirmont, had eloped with a non-com-
missioned officer of the very sameresi-
ment of hussars that her father COM
manded.
| He was handsome young mana
son OF peasanrs, indeed, but looking
superb in the blue dolman, this soldier
who had made love to the daughter
OF his colonel. Doubtless she had re-
marked him first, learned to love him
as she watched the brilliant squadrons
wheeling by. But how he had ever
| managed to speak to her-how they
had ever been able to meet, to come
! to an understanding-how she had
ever dared to let him know that she
loved him-nobody was ever able to
| find out.
Nothing had ever been suspected or
| feared. One evening, Just at the time
| the soldiers term OF service was over,
he disappeared with her. They We're
| long looked for-never found. No news
was ever obtained concerning them,
and all considered her as dead.
And had found her again in that
CHASTITY valley!
Then exclaimed, in my turn:
Yes, l remember it all now. You
are Mile. Suzanne?"
She nodded her head. Tears were
falling from her eyes. Then with q
look directing my attention to the old
man at the door, she said
"That is he"
And l understood that she loved
him still--that she saw him still as
when the first sight OF him had charm
ed her girlish eyes.
asked:
"Fell me, have you been happy?"
| She answered in q voice that came
right from the heart:
"Oh, yesi-very happy. He has al
ways made me very happy. | have
never had cause to regret anything" !"
looked at her-made sad, sur
| prised, amazed by the power of love
That ric34girl had followed that man
that peasant. She had become a
| peasant herself She had accustom-
ed herself to his life-a life without
pleasures, without luxuries, without
retinements OF any kind she had bow
| ed to all his simple ways. And she
loved him still. She had become a
country wife-wearing the coarse bon
net, and canvas apron. She ate from
an earthen plate upon awooden table
ate cabbage soup, boiled with pota-
: toes and lard. She slept at his side
! upon bed OF straw.
She had never thought of anything
but him! She had never regretted the
dainty dresses, or the rich textures,
or the elegancies, or the softness OF
sofas, or the perfumed warmth OF cur
| tained rookls, or the caress OF downy
beds into which delicate bodies plunge
for sleep. She had never wanted any
thing but him--he was there-she de-
sired nothing more. Sh4had abandon
ed life quite young-and society-and
| those who had reared her tenderly
loved her fondly. Shehad come alone
with him. to dwell in that savage
ravine. And he had been everything
to her, everything she could wish,
everything she had dreamed, every.
thing she had waited for, every thing
she had hoped for. He had filled her
whole existence with happiness, from
first to last. She could not possibly
have been more happy.
And ali night long as listened to
the hoarse breathing OF the old
soldier lying on his pallet beside her
who had followed him from so far
away, and | kept thinking OF that
strange and simple adventure, COM
posed OF so few incidents.
And left at SUNRISE after shaking
hands with the old married pair.
The narrator paused. A woman
said:
! That is all very we'll. But she had
too facile an ideal-wants too primi,
| tive and exigencies too simple. She
must have been silly"
Another woman murmured slowly
"What matter! she was happy"
And far away in the depths OF the
horizon, Corsica buried herself in the
night-slowly melted back into the
sea-effaced her vast shadow which
she seemed to have made visible only
in order to tell US the story OF those
two humble lovers who found shelter
on her shores.
Mr.. Dana's Advice to Governor
Hill.