Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1877-07-20


said, the girls are mad about her, and
there certainly is an enchantment some
where on her glowing face before which
few are able to stand. She sings, and
when the song is ended Margaret Fen.
wick's fance strols after the singer into
the conservatory.
"If l were you, Margaret, I should go
after them, really" says Arthurs eldest
sister, half laughing. "Leah would flrt
with the footman, believe, If there was
nobody else in the way. It was just the
same when poor Charlie was at home"
Margaret tries to smile, and to keep
her wistful eyes turned away from the
conservatory door, but she cannot help
specializing little as to the difference
between "poor Charlie" and his brother
AS to Leah herself she can hardly form
a calm, rational opinion, so different is
this Leah from the girl with the wild
eyes, whose poor uncertain fingers she
had helped to find their old familiar
places on the piano at Horewood five
years ago She feels rather than knows
that the past is not all blank in Miss
Fouriers brain, but no word of recogni
tion has passed between the girls, and it
is plain at any rate that nothing Of that
dreadful episode in Leah's life is sus-
pected by the Ashtons. To Margaret
herself, as che looks on the others
proud, imperious beauty, it seems as if
| her remembrance could be nothing but
dream; and yet it is almost pain to
her to think that so much of her pity in
those bygonc days was wasted.
Ten mnutes-a quarter of an hour
goes slowly by, and Leah sauntcrs back
| into the drawing room, with a spray of
maidenhair in her hands, and the passion
of her song still half-slumbering in those
deep, mysterious eyes. Mr.. Ashton is
going to be kind enough to see me home"
she remarks generally for everybody's
information, and Margaret feels the same
sudden chill that had come to her the
night before for the first time, when her
lover had undertaken the same surely
unnecessary duty. 1t is almost a relief
to her to remember that this is her last
evening with the Ashtons, and that the
next day Arthur is to take her back to
London. Leah Fourier may take all the
footmen in Wales into the conservatory
with her then, if she chooses.
Nevertheless the chill comes back to
her heart more Enthusiastically than ever
the next night, for Leah Fourier, and the
conservatory, and Arthur Ashton are all
| left behind. He found that he could
take another weeks holiday, he told her,
and she could not be selfish enough to
propose that he should spend two days
in travelling merely for the sake of tax
ing her home. So their good.by was
said at the little Welsh railway station,
but omc.hng fell out of his pocket as
he was taking her ticket, and she could
not help seeing that it was a bit of
maidenhair fern 1t was pity that it
should be crushed under strangers foot
before he could recover it-but then
there was more in the conservatory.
Four, five days without letter, dur
ing which time the chill never leaves her
heart, and then there comes what she
has been looking for. He asks her if
she is good enough, unselish enough, to
forgive him, and adds, of course, that he
can never forgive himself. Margaret
knows now what answer he made to
Leah's song, and wonders if there is any
thing left for her in the world, or if it is
all made up of such questions and such
replies. Then she remembers that her
father had said that there were 10000
reasons why no one should envy Leah
Fourier.
Well, Leah is his, body and soul,
reasons and all, if he chooses to take her;
and Margaret wonders whether the first
will make up to him for all the others.
Would he choose if he knew of the cor
ridor at Horewood, and had seen the lips
he loved cloying themselves with sweet
meats that soft, compassionate hands
thrust by stealth within their reach? She
puts away the thought from her with a
shudder, calling upon God not to tempt
her to come between him and his happi-
ness. If it can all be hidden from him
it would be a sin in her, of all women in
the world, to say a word which might
dash the cup from his lips. She would
drink her own cup instead, and try to
sweeten it by the thought that the man
she loved was happy with the girl for
whom she had once felt so divine pity.
The months go quickly enough by, now
that Margaret no longer counts how many
there are between the seed and blossom of
her happiness, and she knows that Arthur
Ashton must have brought his bride back
with him by this time to his London
home, Docs she sing " 81 tn Sa0diS" to
him now, Margaret wonders, or does each
know the intensity of the others love by
heart and find it sufficient? Margaret
shudders as she remembers that there is
still secret hidden from Arthur Ashton
in Leah's mysterious eycs-a secret
which she alone can read, and would give
half her life to be able to forget. Would
it ever happen that he should come to
her and curse her for having hidden it
from him, to revenge herselfY
oh 10 pl knA hn.
unwillingly, Margaret sees the first time
she holds Arthur Ashton's hand in hers
again. He has written to ask her if he
may come to her and satisfy himself of
her forgiveness, and her love is dead
enough in her heart for her to be able to
tell him Eyes" She has even ceased to
wonder at the dreariness of her own life,
and is vaguely conscious, as he takes her
hand, of the same great pity for him and
the woman who had supplanted her that
filled her heart as she went down the
staircase at Horewood, leaving the cold
corridor and the locked doors behind her.
You have found out how little was
worth your regrets?" he says, forcing an
uneasy laugh, as he sees that the old
quiver he remembers in her lips is there
no longer.
"No, not that" answers Margaret,
simply, "but it is quite true that regret
nothingi nothing at least that" She
stops, knowing that it is too late to tell
him now what she does regret, and what
she tries to persuade herself she is mis-
taken in regretting You must be very
happy-yo are happy, are you not?" she
asks anxiously.
"How long do you expect a bride
groom's happiness to last?" he asks in re-
ply, with an atfectation of levity that
tells Margaret that she has been sacri-
feed in vain. "Leah has been talking
of coming to see you for the last month,
do you know~
She is very beautiful, said Margaret,
irrelevantly. Is she quite wellY"
"WellS of course she is" he answers,
in not quite so even voice. Why
should she not be well?"
Margarets heart turns sick with the