The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1904-02-19
AN OLD MAID.
hu Ninno Toepfer.

| 5+E
M. nod been told that there was no
me in all Rome who could remember az
she. but 1t was only after a long search
that we finally found her little house IN
a miserable, narrow street, n we mao
~ climb a rickety old stairway before
we reached the door with her card
written IN old -fashioned letters.
We had expected to find an ordinary
working woman, but no one couAo
doubt for a second that the old Woman
In her shabby Gress was a laoy oorn
and bred.
In her little room not a grain OF dust
could be seen, and through the door
Won could look into a little kitchen with
conner cooking vessels shining nke
pold. While my friend told her about
me work she wanted done, and the olo
maid was listening with a sad smile on
her pale lips, I ran my eyes around the
room until they finally rested on a vase
filled with the most beautiful vlolets.
an unusual luxury in December. Over
The vase. on the wall, hung an old
daguerreotype portrait An q sAu1pAe wv
artistic frame.
But where did you get those beauti-
ful yiolets?" 1 could not help asking.
"They came from a florist in Genoa.
! who sends them to me twice a week all
the year round" she answered. with q
certain expression Of pride. =.
Seeing my expression Of surprise. she
continued: Yes, they do cost quite a
little, but I have always been able to
earn enough to buy them even II l have
to economic on other things.
I went over to the table and looked
| at the old, faded portrait-a handsome
young officer in a foreign uniform.
The old maid followed me and O 1t
down from the wall, and a tear stole
down her wrinkled cheek.
"It is an Austrian uniform she said,
and added softly: II Is dead-dead
many years ago"
And though we did not question her
she told US quietly, without a trace OF
bitterness the sad story OF her youth.
How she had been born in a little pro-
vincial town, where she grew UP to
m~aidenhood with her brothers n her
strict father, without great passions
and without anything to break the
hum-drum of her daily life.
But the year 1S4S came, with its polit-
ical storms. and changed everything.
She had grown into a beautiful maiden
and she had fallen In love. alas! with
an officer who wore the hated Austrian
uniform.
I'VE loved one another" she said,
with an expression which showed that
her love today was as strong as ever,
from the very first day we met"
II am sure" she said, that you know
how real love is stronger than any
other feeling, stronger than the love for
Your country and stronger even than
your pride, III my father vas a pa
triot, who would soone have killed me
than see me marry an officer in the
enemy's army"
But he was wrong, cruel, unjust"
my friend exclaimed; HE had nc
right"
She smiled sadly and shook her gray
old head.
MY lear girl, In those days girls
never thought of their right, a fathers
will was all powerful: you could only
obey"
But you could have waited until you
became of age
That would have caused my father
great sorrow; it might have killed him.
I could do nothing but give In"
And hep
Her thin, bony hand moved a little;
she could not speak. but her face told
all.
He fell at solferino," she whispered
after a pause. He died the death of
a hero with my name on his lips. His
mother afterward sent ma his picture
to fulfil his last wish"
She stood before us. grand In her deep
sorrow, a heroine herself, who had
found strength to fight the battle of life
alone, faithful to her first, her great,
her only love. rich in the midst Of her
poverty.
The neighbors. practical
smile derisively every time the letter
carrier brings the little p%astboard box
hiled with the fragrant %violets, her trib-
ute to her dead love, but she does not
see their plying smiles; she lives only
In the dream Of her youth, happier in
dreams than they have ever been in
real life, with q happiness which is not
OF this world and which no one a de-
prive her Of.