Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1902-11-11
A HEAVENLY WOMAN.
BY KArHARINE TYNAN.


in dream-so strange did it all
seem to me, who had been long absent
from such festivities. 1t was five
years since my adored Georgiana had
left me, taking with her the little
fruit of our love, and for so long l had
not revisited the glimpses Of the
moon. Indeed, | had not been here
now but that the rout was for the
new hospital, and my friend Dean
Delany had persuaded me to it, say
ing that it was something that my
angel would have exacted fine, and
that she would not have me lay down
the duties of my station because the
Lord had taken her from me.
l knew the dean thought that my
seclusion had lasted long enough;
yet never was snail torn so painfully
from his shell as / from my house.
l caught sight Of myself in a mir
Tor in the ballroom, and marveled
that the anguish of that time, the
loneliness Of the years, had not made
a more enduring mark upon me.
l was dressed fnely-like bride
groom. ! Knocked at myself. My ras-
cal Patrick had seen to that, and had
had the tailor to me and the PERU
quier; and there l was in pearl gray
silk from head to foot, and my wig
curled finely, and a hint of essences
about mel, whose heart was as dead
as any mans might be while his body
lived
Suddenly my attention was arrest
ed by the vision of a lady who sat in
a gilded chair Immediately facing me
across the ballroom.
l thought l had seen her before,
yet surely she was different. re-
membered a being Of an innocent and
bewitching milkmaid beauty who
had been like her, yet unlike Ifyou
could imagine a veil.in the evening
drawn over the morning you would
have my lady as her saddened beauty
appeared by that memory Of milk and
roses.
Some one stepped into the window
bv my side. 1t was the dean.
"Sul here, my Lord RaheDy," he
began.
"Who is that lady?7 Iasked, indi-
eating the face that had just arrested
me.
He did not look at me in curiosity
as another might
"That heavenly woman" he an
swered. 'Why, she is Mrs. Bathurst.
Don't you remember that she was
Caroline Dillon, little Caro-? She
married Harvey Bathurst, who was
killed in a duel with Buck Standish
the year Of your marriage"
/ remembered the bright thing
then, and my heart smote me. Itwas
not so long from her calamity to
mine; and l had forgotten hers.
"She was fond Of her husband" l
asked.
"She worshiped him. The manner
of his death, too. He fought the
Buck for girls honor-a mad, gen.
erous thing to do, But it enthroned
him in his wife's affections, whence
perhaps life might have dispossessed
him"
"He was a charming fellow"
said l.
Il have only known one man good
enough for Caro-" replied the dean.
"But come, she is looking our way.
Like yourself, she is lonely at this
feast. l dragged her from her retire
ment. You must know this heaven
ly woman"
In the days and weeks that fol-
lowed l came to understand why the
dean so designated her.
When we made our parties Of four
II seemed the naturalist thing in the
world that Mrs. Bathurst and I
should be left together. For the
dean was so hugely in love with his
wife that they must be making little
retirements for themselves like a
pair of lovers, and would find walks
and corners where there was only