American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1876-07-15

that he did cruel and cowardly thing
he put his arms around her, kept her
close to his heart, and told her that he
loved her.
And she went back and to her room
when he had gone, fell upon her knees,
and felt that God had been too good to
her-she never had deserved it!
They came back after few days,
having seen nothing and done nothing,
though they had heard much.
Perhaps Cranbourne felt some twinges
Of conscience, for he resolved not to go
near Margaret after his return; yet, as
chance would have it, she was at Mat
ties the very afternoon they rode in,
and he walked home with her, and her
eyes drew him to her, and his resolution
was gone to the winds.
Then the weeks sped by again, only
too quickly. Margaret thought of him,
dreamed of him, lived her very life in
his life, and felt that before she had ex-
listed, but new she Hued indeed.
He came often to the black cottage
with its wreathing rosebush, and linger-
ed long within it; and the gossips of
Last Chance Diggings laughed or
sneered, as they were good or lima
tured.
| As for Gomez, he smoked his cigar
cites still where he could see into the
kitchen, and looked upon Ralph Gran
bourne with an intense hatred burning
in his deep-set eyes; but Gomez kept
his own counsel and perhaps thought
his day would come.
Cranbourne lavished upon Margaret
all the loving epithets, all the winning,
tender ways of which he was master
and she, who had lived all her lie in
country towns of which Last Chance
Diggings was a fair specimen, who had
seen honest miners by the hundred,
and vulgar-refined men by the score,
whose lovers had been too devoted and
too familiar, was enthralled; she did
not think, or care to think, how many
times the poor play had been rehearsed
sometimes, when he would speak of
their marriage; but she never dis
trusted him, she was sure that it was
all right; he knew best; she would
not even allow her heart to ask ''why?''
But there came day-it was barely
three months since their first meeting
when Margaret's unquestioning faith
was rudely broken. He told her pitt
full story, perhaps true, perhaps false,
of a heartless wife to whom he was
tied; he promised to claim her as soon
as he should be free, and whispered /:
"Trust me, my pearl. Can you not
trust mep"
Her love was SO thoroughly trusting,
so generous, SO self-forgetting, and
who shall say it was she who fell?
But as the weeks went by the bloom
paled on her rounded cheeks, the eye
lids were heavy and dropping, the clear
eyes dim with the shedding of too
many tears; the gossips looked at her,
and whispered that ''Margaret Lily
didn't seem to be so terrible happy
with that air new lover of hern."
To Margaret it seemed that she was
living all her years in the hush before
the storm. eff he had but gone away,
and left me with my dream"
Again the vigilance committee gath
cred its forces, and again Ralph Gran
bourne came to say "Goed-by'' the
night before they started.
| But Margaret was bitter-she, who
had never been bitter in her life-and
he said, as he held her limp hand in his
at the gate, ssYou would not care if you
never saw me again, would you, dar-
lingP"
az wish T never had seen you," she
said, snatching her hand away, and
covering her face.
He caressed her, soothed her, Gained
away the present sense of trouble; for
she loved him, woman-like, not less,
but more for her sacrifice.
| And all the time pair of deep-set,
wicked-looking eyes watched them
through paling in the dilapidated
fence. Once Cranbourne started, and
fancied that he heard sound not made
by the night wind, but he was not given
to borrowing trouble, and cast the
thought by.
They were gone four days, and came
back with three most vicious-looking
prisoners.
"You kin bet your pile Wen git the
rest on 'em next time" said McKintry.
Ralph and another man had been
wounded; indeed, the committeeman
declared that had Cranbourne not been
a stranger in those parts, they would
have believed that one of the bandits
they were all masked-had q spite
against him, for he followed him up
continually, even after he had been
once wounded.
Margaret's heart was full of tender
ness when she went to him; all was
forgotten save that he was suffering.
''Has Gomez come regularly, lately?''
he asked.
Margaret shook her head: ssHe dis
appeared the day that you started, and
1 have never seen him SINCE"
Cranbourne looked at his broken
arm; 'sI've seen him." said he.
The next afternoon she went again to
see her wounded lover, but he had
gone.
"Packed up bag and baggage just
arter you left yesterday, and skedad-
died this morning." said Mr.. Holmes.
Margaret's face paled in spite of her,
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