American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-11-29
VOL. XXIII.

| dragged IL on, holding II back by main
force till somebody from behind came up
and gave it the coup de grace. He is brave
| fellow, whatever are his faults, and has
made me his debtor to no small amount "
Poor Cecil,'' sighed Margaret to her
self; but Ralph caught the words, and a
pang of jealousy came over him as he
thought that thereby hung tale.
Perhaps it was as well he could not see
the vision which rose before his COM
panion's eyes then; the vision of a
quaint old parsonage garden, with boy
and girl standing there among the roses
and saving good bye-to more ali, how
he to go forth into the world, and fall
from his high resolves and noble ambi-
lions into the downward path, too fearful.
" easy to travel along; and she to remain
in her quiet home and dream of an impos-
sible future. None knew what to her had
| been the awakening from those dreams
when the first faint rumor, which she
strove to disbelieve, reached her; and
then when later she knew beyond doubt
that the idol she worshipped was of
clay, all unfit for the shrine she had found
it.
| Hers was a selfcOntained nature; the
wound had bled sorely, but no one guess
ed its presence-only her family were wont
to remark, 'How quiet Margaret has be-
comet" 1t was now completely healed !;
| how completely she had not realized till
these last few days, though the scar was
| still left, and would not bear handling too
roughly.
Perhaps all this will account for the
| fact of Margaret Dene being yet unmar-
ried at the advanced age of five-and twen-
ty; a fact which her friends never tired of
wondering at.
Before many minutes my heroine's
thoughts were recalled to the present by
| the general breaking up of the party, and
some how the au recoir whispered in her
ear by earnest tones made her quite for
get to revert again to such sad RETROSPECT
tions.
"Who's won?" shouted chorus of
voices as, two days later, Charlie saun-
tered into his mothers drawing ROOM
please, Charlie, do tell us quickly who
WONT"
"Who won what? Do be little quiet,
girls; it's far too hot to exert ones self
this weather. How dye do, Margaret? l
never saw you anything but cool in my
life; wish 1 could say ditto for myself; ="
and, catching up a fan, the young man
threw himself into an easy chair with
great affectation of feeling overcome.
"Come, Charles, don't be such tease,
Who got the queens prize? We are all
dying TO KNOW.
:" Much good may the knowing do you
then," said Charlie. s"Cecil Collins has
gotit"
=" Cecil Oollins!" and Margaret's voice
this time Joined the others. "Why, you
said Mr.. Leicester was sure CT it."
a. never said anything of the kind; and
besides, if l did, 1 don't pretend to the
pope's infallibility" After which Charlie
tried the effects of the veranda and cigar
on his ruffied feelings
So the rose did not answer after all,
thought Margaret, as she walked to the
window to ask what score Mr.. Leicester
had made.
Leicester never shot at all" was Char
lies gruff response.
Never shot at ALI Why not?''
"That's just what nobody knows. The
fellows are saying it looks awfully fishy;
and Travers, who can always kick a man
when he's down, hints that he's got into
some trouble or other, as those wonder
fully clever men are sure to do; but that's
mere jealousy, because Travers is such
fool himself Ha! there's Phillips and
dinner; l always look upon the two as
synonymous. Come along, Meg, let's try
to forget about shooting for a while, or it
will decidedly affect my brain after all l
have heard of it, today
If Charles brain were not affected,
eOhCUouy ClSc dppctitc&~6S, Tie song
she had been practicing, that afternoon,
would keep recurring to Margarets men,
DRY, with its refrain of Shakespeare's
verse:
Then sigh no more, ladies' ladies, sigh no more;
Men were deceivers ever;
One foot on sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never
"Have you dance to spare me, Miss
Dene!"
81 fear not Mr.. Leicester" and, without
glancing at her programme, Margaret
turned toward her companion to continue
the conversation Ralph had broken in
upon, nor did she look round again till
she knew he had left her side.
1t was their first meeting since that
luncheon party at Wimbledon, now more
than month age; when Ralph Leicester
had been foolish enough to talk a great
deal of nonsense, which she had been
still more foolish in believing, so Marga-
ret said to herself. She did not in the
least credit all the disagreeable things
people were saying about him; but he
had shown pretty plainly, by his silence
all this time, his perfect indifference to
her good opinion, and she determined on
that point to meet him more than half
way.
She had just arrived at this conclusion
when Cecil Collins came forward to claim
her for the waltz then commencing; and
as she walked down the room on his arm,
not few turned to gaze at the handsome |
couple and wonder who they were; a |
wonder easily satisfied, for Cecil, at least, |
was becoming well known. Not only |
had he won the queens prize, which in |
itself made him a sufficiently marked |
man, but with that prize he had come |
into the heirship of urge fortune.
His uncle, rich and eccentric old |
bachelor, who was wont to describe him
self as ''tne best shot of his day, sir" and |
who considered that quite description I
enough of any man, was so delighted to
find his scapegrace nephew turning out a |
marksman, that he wrote |
to him, promising not only to pay his
debts, but to make new will in his favor
II only that nephew succeeded in carry
ing of the prize of the year. A strange
excuse, through which the truth showed |
somewhat pathetically, for making one
last effort to reclaim the prodigal; that so,
it it were possible, this only son of his
dead brother might still be found worthy
to fill his place, when that place should
have become vacant, instead of the old
home and well filed Golfers passing into
the hands of strangers.
The dance over, Margaret and Cecil
strolled through the open window into
the moonlit garden beyond, glad to ex-
change the heated atmosphere of the ball |
room for the cool night air. Did their
thoughts wander back to that other gar
den they had stood together in, long ago,
ere sin and sorrow came to overshadow |
their young livess Perhaps so, for both |
were unusually silent; and it was not till |