The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-24
4 GUBERNAToRIAL ROMANCE.
nx IrIIEr III srRAuss.

word which old Mr.. Ballinger used in re-
counting the events now about to be set
down.
Mr.. Ballinger was one of the few unre-
generate citizens in a thoroughly awakened
town, and his remarks. while seemingly
conclusive, must be taken with considerable
allowance for fractional prejudice.
Culture in an aggravated form had early
set in on McBurnieville, and few indeed
were the scions of village aristocracy who
had not yielded to her sway. Mr.. Ballinger
was one of them and the widow Wallace
was another. and although the minority was
small. it was exasperatingly respectable. 1t
certainly was annoying to note that the
large grounds and white pllared porches.
the spacious hall and old-fashioned double
parlors of Mr.. Ballinger's home had never
been utilized for a club fete, a parlor lecture
or a reading" and it was embarrassing
for the Emerson Club. when it came chirp-
ing down the street in body, talking in
the high key of excited mental achieve
ment and laughing at the latest bright
remark of whichever member happened to
be the fashion just at the time, to encoun-
ter the wealthy Mrs. Wallace placidly milk
ing her Jersey COW in front of her own
door and seemingly oblivious to the compact
body of spiritual essence being waited UNI
der her unappreciative, and, it must be ad-
mitted, slightly disdainful nose.
II don't go to any of their dogburyin s.
she announced to granny Blevins, a humble
but sensible neighhor with whom Mrs. Wal
lace was wont to discuss the workings of
society over the hack fence.
Miss Pauline McBurnie was the daughter
of McBm nieville's most distinguished citi-
zen, and her return after years of absence,
was naturally an event of some Importance.
Her father had been made Governor of the
State IL her early childhood, and was, as
men used really to be in the old days, the
idol Of the people, who constituted him "
demi-god and worshipped him accordingly.
Early in his career, however, and while his
daughter was still almost in infancy, the
Governor met with a loss in the death of his
young wife, which changed the tenor of his
existence Ambition suddenly left him; po-
litical life lost its charm; and, despite the
pleadings of his friends, he retired at the
close of his term of office to his cid home
stead at McBurnieville, where, with his lit
tie daughter, he abode for several years, al
most recluse, devoting himself to the
child's education, to reading and to long
hours of meditation and memory. The
daughter was, in manner, public
charge; all of the village women mothered
her. She was a bright, good tempered
child equally at home helping Granny
Blevins make soap. or sitting primly beside
Mrs. Ballinger, stitching away upon the
stint provided for her by that motherly
soul, who felt it her duty to instruct the
Governors daughter in such branches of the
household art as she would have
wished some kindly person to, inn
pose upon her own daughters had
she been called to leave them at q
tender age. At other times little Pauline
sat out on the garden seat in the shade
patiently reading "volney's Ruins" to hel
father, or translating knotty Latin passages
with his carefully given assistance. When
Pauline was grown her father had taker
her abroad, to the horror of his village
friends in whose old-fashioned minds such
a proceeding could appear only as the ca.
price of shaken intellect. In the old world
however, the two had found such foothold
as to root them year by year more firmly
until one day the Ex-Governor died sud
denly and his daughter found herself alone
in a world entirely alien, for her father had
been her world, and he was gone.
During all the time of the McBurnies' alb
Asence the old house had stood, a monument
" departed glory, and, in later years, a
pne of considerable contention between
he two warning factions of society. The
onprogressive claimed the past as their
natural Inheritance. while the progressive
boldly laid hold upon all that was worthy
and made capital of it, for the boom" OF
modern improvement. both mechanical and
mo fa1 T0R ia r11a OF for aoIz
from the street, low-roofed, square-win-
edowed and shaded by giant elms and beech
es A grass-grown gravel path zigza gged
to the gate, and the wooden fence repre-
scented a long succession of rudely carved
Tyres, with the white paint crumbline
away in patches. Old Mr.. Ballinger used to
snort disdainfully when a carriage load OF
the new people, entertaining some visit
the McBurnie place and point with pride tc
the house and grounds, and the old broken
garden seats under the elms, where he him.
self could remember the familiar form OF
the one great man of the village, sitting
with bowed head and retrospective mien on
fine, still summer afternoons.
Our distinguished citizen' he would re-
peat, with fine irony. to his gentle-faced
old wife. :" Ours indeed! He never
knowed one of EN-, and he wouldn't ha
put up with their tomfoolery and palaverin
a minute. / knowed McBurnie myself, and
he was right down sensible man, if he
was a governor"
Miss McBurnie came in very quietly and
was installed in the old home before many
people knew of her arrival. When it was
discovered the Emerson Club held a called
meeting. and Mrs ]. Dabney Blair was
commissioned to visit the distinguished per-
sonage and give her a proper welcome.
Mrs. Blair was a celebrity herself. Besides
being president of the Emerson Club, she
had written a paper on THE Ethics OF
Culture in the Wabash Valley which had
been read at state literary association
and afterwards printed in pamphlet form.
This recognition of ability had given Mrs
Blair an air of conscious power. She moved
about with an aplomb, partly due to avoir-
dupois partly to mental basis. She had
about her a perpetual air or the presiding
officer calculated to subdue any frivolous
person on sight One dared not look cross
! sided over Immediately.
When Mrs. Blair rang the front-door bell
at the McBuraie homestead she heard il
jingle lonesomely through the great old
rooms. The place was so silent and there
were so few signs of occupancy that she
was about to turn away, disconsolate, when
she caught sight of Il blue bingham sum
bonnet beyond the garden paling, where a
woman had suddenly appeared and who
stood regarding Mrs. Blair with scruti-