The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1905-04-21
CHAPTER ~.
WHICH MAY BE PASSED OVER
LIGHTLY.


When 1 came back to some cleare,
sensing of things. found myself g
IN a room which was strange and We,
strangely familiar. Barring a greal
oaken clothes press in one corner, a
raree show of curious china on the
shelves where the books should have
been, n the face of an armored sol
dler staring down at me from it's frame
over the c~himneypiece. where l should
have looked to see my mothers por-
trait, the room was a counterpart of my
Old Dedchamber at Appieby
Ihere was even a faint odor of Lavender
In the bed linen. and the sense of smell.
which hath ever a better memory than
any other, carried me swiftly back to
my boyhood. and 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
friend; and on it a dainty porringer.
fllled with cuttings of fragrant sweet
hrlar. Ihis was some womanly con
ceit. said to myself: ana then /
laughed, though the laugh set a pair
OF wolrs jaws at work on my shoulder.
20 you must know that l had lived the
full half of King David's span of
three-Score and ten years, and more.
and what womanly s%oftness had fallen
TO my lot had been we'll got and paid
for.
L closed my eyes the better to remem-
Der what had befallen, and when L
opened them again vas fain to wonder
II the moment of back-reaching stood
not for som longer time. In the deep
pay OF the window was a great chair
OF Indian wickerwork. and | could
have sworn it had but now been
empty. Yet when looked again a
sat in 1t.
Now OF a truth l had seen this wom-
ans face but twice and once 1t wore a
smile of teasing mockery n once was
full of terror: but L thought 1 should
live long and suffer much before the
winsome challenging beauty of it would
let me be as / had been before | had
looked Upon it.
n knew not that l was awake and
stalking the thirst of my eyes upon the
sweetness of her, and SO | saw her then
as few ever saw her, | think. with the
womanly barriers of defense all down
lis a hard test, and one hat makes a
blank OF many a face beautiful enough
In action; but though this lady's face
was to the full as changeful as any
April sky. it was never less than trt-
umphantly beautiful.
had said her eyes were blue, but
now they were deep wells rejecting the
soft gray of the clouded sky beyond the
window panes. l had made sure that
her lips lent themselves most readily to
mocking smiles scornful of any wit less
trenchant than her own; but now these
knocking lips We're pensive, and with
the rounded cheek and chin gave her
the look of a sweet hild wanting to be
kissed. l had said her hair was bright
in the sunlight, and so, indeed, it was:
but lacking the Il it still held the dull
.luster of FURNISHED copper in its masses
and her simple. care-free dressing Of
1t at a 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 he
look of a child.
Lastly, l had called her small. and
certainly her figure was sirlish beside
those grenadier DANES of Maria
Theresa's court to whom my old field
marshal had once presented me. But
when she rose n went to stand in the
wtndow-bay l marked this; that not
n duchess or margarine OF them all
had a more queenly bearing, or. with