Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1894-03-16
THE WHITE ROSE.

have. an old, brown, carved box-the
lid is broken and tied with q string. In
it keep little squares of paper, with hair
inside and little picture which hung
over my brothers. bed when we were chill
dren, and other things as small. l have
in it rose. Other women also have such
boxes, but 10 one has my rose.
When my eye is dim, and my heart
grows faint and my faith in woman flick
ers, and her presence is an agony to me,
and her future despair, the scent OF
that dead rose, withered for IL years,
comes back to me. / know there will be
,pring as surely as the birds know 1t when
hey see above the snow two tiny quiveIing
;reen leaves. Spring cannot fail us.
There were other flowers i'll the box
nce-a bunch OF white acacia flowers,
gathered by the strong hand Of a man as
we passed down a village street on sui
+ :ry afternoon, when it had rained, and the
rops fell Oh us from the leaves Of the AGA
ia trees. The flowers were damp. They
made mildew marks on the paper folded
hem in. After many years threw them
way. There is nothing Of them left, but
he rose is in the bog still.
1t is many years ago now. / was girl
If Is, and I went to visit in q small up
ountry town. 1t was young in those days
nd two days journey from the nearest
illage. The population consisted mainly
# men. A few were married and had their
wives and children, but most were single.
There was only one young girl there when
| came. She was about II, fair and rath
sr fully flesiled. She had large dreamy
blue eyes and wavy light hair, full, rather
heavy lips, until she smiled; then her face
broke into dimples, and all her white teeth
shone. The hotel keeper may have had n
daughter, and the farmer in the outskirts
had two, but we never saw them. She
reigned alone. All the men worshiped her.
She was the only woman they had to
think of. They talked of her on the stoop,
at the market, at the hotel; they watched
for her at street corners; they hated the
man she bowed to OF walked with down
the street. They brought flowers to the
front door; they offered her their horses,
they begged her to marry them when thgy
dared. Partly, there was something noble
and heroic in this devotion of men to the
best woman they knew. Partly, there
was something natural in it, that these
men, shut Off from the world, should pour
at the feet OF one woman the worship that
otherwise would have been given to 20,
and partly there was something mean in
their envy.
Then | came I do not think | was
prettier; do not think was SO pretty as
she was. | was certainly not rs handsome.
But / was vital, and was new, and she
was old-they all forsook her and follow
ed me- They worshiped me. 1t was to
my door that the flowers came; it was ]
had 20 horses offered me when / could
only ride one; it was for me they waited
at street corners; it was what l said and
did that they talked Of. Partly liked it.
I had lived alone all my life; no one had
ever told me l was beautiful and Il wom
an / believed them. did not know it
was simply fashion which one man
had set and the rest followed unreasoning
w. liked them to ask me to marry them
and to say "No." l despised them. The
mother heart had not swelled in me yet
I did not know all men were my children,
as the large woman knows when her heart
is grown. l was like child with new
whip-it goes about cracking everywhere,
not caring against what. Only one thing
took from my pleasure. l could not bear
that they had deserted her for me- liked
her great dreamy blue eyes. I liked her
slow walk and drawl When I saw her sit
ting among men, she seemed to me much
too good to be among them. l would
nave given dll bnClI IL SuC
would once have smiled at me as she smil
ed at them, with all her face breaking
into radiance, with her dimples and fash
ing teeth. But l knew it never could be.
| felt sure she hated me; that she wished
l was dead that she wished l had never
come to the village. She did not know,
when we went out riding and man who
had always ridden beside her came to ride
beside me, that | sent him away; that
once when man thought to win my IA
vor by ridiculing her slow drawi before
me turned on him so fiercely that be
never dared come before me again. | knew
she knew that at the hotel men had made
bet as to which was the prettier. she Or l,
and had asked each man who came in,
and that the one who staked on me won.
She and I never spoke to each other. If
we met in the village, we bowed and pass
ed on. When we shook hands, we did SO
silently and did not look at each other.
But l thought she felt my presence in a
room just as felt hers. At last the time
for my going came. was to leave the
next day. Some one knew gave party
in my honor. All the village was invited.
1t was midwinter. There was nothing
in the gardens but few dahlias and
chrysanthemums, and l suppose that for
goo miles round there was not a rose to be
bought for love Or money. Only in the
garden of a friend of mine, in sunny cor
l1er between the oven and the brick wall,
there was rose tree growing which had
on it enc bud. 1t was white, and it had
been promised to the fair haired girl to
wear at the party.
The evening came. When | arrived and
went to the waiting room to take OF my
mantle found the girl there already
She was dressed in pure white. with her
great white arms and shoulders showing
and her bright hair glittering in the can
die light and the white rose fastened at
her breast She looked like Il queen. |
said Good evening" and turned away
quickly to the glass Then ! felt a hand
touch my hair. sStand still, she said.
looked in the glass. She had taken the
ing it in my hair.
''How nice dark hair isl 1t sets off flow
cts SOP She stepped back and looked
at me. ut looks much better there!'' !
turned round ''You are SO beautiful to
colonial drawl. "rm SO glad" We stood
looking at each other, Then they came
in and swept us away to daEce. All the
evening we uItl uUI CoiilC iSuA W CttSA otd
er. Only once, az she passed, she smiled.
The next morning left the town.
never saw her again. Years afterward
| heard abe had married and gone to
America. 1t may or may not be so-but
the rose-the rose is in the box still! When
nv faith in woman grows dim, and it
seems that for want of love and magnanim
ity she can play NC part in any future
heaven, then the scent of that small, with
cred thing comes hack-sprng cannot fail
us.-Olive Schreiner in New York Adver
tiser
How to Make Cream of NIacaroons.
A delicious sweet to offer at lunch