The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1898-07-16
CHAPTER KILL.
SHADOW OF ABSENT LOVE,

a SHADOW OF ABSENT LOVE. aFs5.
Six years had passed since the marriage OF
the goyerness left Miss Darrell alone. She
heard as constantly as ever from Sir Yane;
he had made money rapidly. 1t was no
longer the desire to make 4 fortune which
kept him away, but the fact that in tho pnrt
of the country where lie was great danger
existed, and that, having been placed there
Ill a situation of trust, he could not well leave
it; so OF late a hopeless tone had crept into
his letters. He made no reference to coming
home; and Pauline, so quick, SO sensitive,
saw i'll this rcticcnce the shadow of her own
presentiment.
Six years had changed Pauline Darrell
from Il beautiful girl to a magnificent wo-
man; her beauty was of that grand and
queeniy kind that of itself is n noble dowry.
The years had but added to ii. They had
given a more statuesque grace to t.ic perfect
figure; they had added tenderness, thought,
and spirituality to the face; they had given
to her beauty q charm that it had never worn
in her younger days.
Miss Darrell, of Darrell Court, had made
for herself a wonderful reputation. There
was no estate in England so well managed
as hers. From one end TO the other the Oar
rell domain was, people said, a garden. Pau
line had done away with the old cottages
and iil-drained farnl-houSes, and in their
stead pretty and commodions buildings had
been erected, She had fought a long and
fierce battle with ignorance and prejudice,
and she had won.
She had established schools where children
were taught. first to be good Christians, and
then good citizens, and where useful knowl-
edge was made much OF. She had erected
almshouses for the poor, and a church where
rich and poor, old and young. could worship
God together. The people about her rose up
and called her blessed; tenants, dependents,
servants, all had but one word for her, and
that was of highest praise. To do good seem
ed the object OF her life, and she had succeed
cd so far.
No young queen was ever more popular or
more beloved than this lady with her sweet,
grave smile, her tender, womanly ways her
unconscious grandeur of life. She made no
stir, no demonstration, though she was the
head of a grand old race, the representative
of an old honored family, the holder of a
great inheritance; size simply did her duty as
nobly as SHE knew how to do it. There was
no thought of self left in her, her whole
energies were directed for the good of others.
If Sir Oswald could lave known how the
home he loved was cared for, he would have
been proud of his successor. The hall itself,
the park, the grounds, were all in perfect.
order. People wondered how it was all ar
ranged by this lady, who never seemed hur-
ried nor talked of the work she did.
Pauline occupied herself incessantly, for
the bright hopes of girllood, she felt, were
hers no longer; she had admitted that the ru-
nance, the passion. the poetry of her youth
were unforgotten, but she tried to think
them dead. People wondered at her gravity.
She had many admirers, but she never show
ed the least partially forany of them. There
seemed to be some shadow over her, ind only
those who knew her story knew what 1t was
that it was iie shadow of her absent love.
She was standing one day in the library
alone, the same library where 50 much OF
and fncessant care that the management OF
her estates cntaIled. She did not own 1t even
to herself, but she longed for the presence OF
the only being whom she loved.
She was bending over some beautiful in.
ponicas-for, no matter how depressed she
might be, she always found solacc in flowers
-when. she heard the sound II q horses
rapid trot