The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1905-04-21
CHAPTER ~.
WHICH NAY BE PASSED OVER
vr,Jyy,y

When 1 came back to some clearer
sensing OF things, 1 found myself abed
in & room which vas Strange and yet
strangely familiar. Barring a great
oaken clothes press in one corner, a
Iaree show of curious china on the
shelves where the books should have
been, and the face of an armore SOL
der staring down at me from it's frame
over the chimneypiece, where l should
have looked to see my mothers por-
trait. the room Was counterpart of my
old bedchamber at Appleby Hundred.
There Was even a faint odor of lavender
in the bed linen; and the sense of smell,
which hath ever a better than
any other, carried me swiftly back to
my boyhood, md TO the remembrance
that my mother had always kept a
spray or two of that sweet herb in her
linen closet.
At the bedside there was claw-footed
table, which also had the look of an old
riend: and on it a dainty porringer,
Tiled with cuttings Of fragrant sweet
briar. This was some womanly con-
ceit, | said to myself; and then [
laughed. though the laugh set a pair
of VOLTS jaws at work on my shoulder.
For you must know hat L had lived the
fuli half of King David's spar of
thiee-score and ten years, and more,
and what WoElanly softness had fallen
to my lot had been We'll got and paid
for.
i closed my eyes the better to remem-
Der what had befallen. and when 1
opened them again was fain to wonder
II the of back-reaching stood
nos for some longer time. In the deep
bay of the window was a great chair
of Indian wickerwork. and | could
have sworn it had but now beer
empty. Yet when l looked again a
woman sat in it.
Now of a truth l had seen this wom-
ans face but twice and once it wore a
smile of teasing mockery and once was
full OF terror: but 1 thought should
live long and suffer much before the
winsome challenging beauty of it would
let me be as l had been be- re / had
looked upon it.
She knew not that / was awake and
shaking the thirst of my eyes upon the
sweetness of her, II so / saw her then
as few ever saw her, l think, with the
womanly barriers of defense all down.
lis a hard test, and II that makes a
blank of many a face beautiful enough
in action: but though this lady's face
was to the full as c%hangeful as any
April sky, it was never less than tri-
umphaNtly beautiful.
l had said her eyes We're blue, but
nov they were deep wells rejecting the
w. Sh'S VI ~ 'obNA'N N Ivy liz liS
window panes. 1 had made sure that
her lips lent themselves most readily to
hooking smiles Scornful of any Wit less
~trenchant than her own: but now these
hooking lips were pensive, and with
the rounded cheek and chin gave her
the look of a sweet child wanting to be
kissed. I had said her hair was bright
in the sunlight, SO. indeed. it was;
but lacking the sun it still held the dull.
luSter. of FURNISHED cOpper in its MASSES
and her simple. care-free dressing, OF
it at 4 time when les ~grandes danes
were friZzing and powdering and add
ing art to art to mar the woman's
crown of glory, gave her yet more thu
look of a child.
Lastly, 1 had called her small. and
certainly her figure was girlish beside
those grenadier danes of Marie
Theresa's court to whom my old field.
marshal had once presented me. Blu
when she rose and went to stand in thu
window-bay I marked this: that no
any duchess or margarine OF them al
had a more queenly bearing, or. will