The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1881-06-30
MARGARETs REPENTANCE.

MARGARET'S REPENTANCE.
There had evidently been q converse
ton, and a painful one. Margaret Os-
borne stood by the low French window
looking out upon the June splendOrs Of
the wide garden, with eyes dim with un-
shed tears. Her tall figure with its
deep mourning draperies, her beautiful
face, pale with deep emotion, showed
that she had passed through sorrow but
recently.
Beside her, upon a low, cushioned
chair, his face also pale, his eyes deeply
mournful, sat DR.. Walborne, her life
long friend. His heavy cane and the
constrained attitude of his figure told
of his crippled state, his pale, thin face
of habitual i'll health, his large, lustrous
eyes, sensitive mouth and nervous hands
of talent and repressed power.
Margaret" he said presently, Il
have been in a FOOLS paradise for
week. That was cruelp'
I forgotr she said, humbly, latter
my father died I forgot everything but
my own desolation.
He WINGED at that. Had she remem-
bered, perhaps she had not been so des-
Olate.
''You forget that'when he placed your
hand in mine, and begged to care for
you Rs my wife, your silence gave as
sent to the propOsal?"
"HoW could l pain him then?" she
said in low voice that pleaded in ey-
cry tone for pardon. You had told
me he was dying"
"But that you could forget!' he said,
sadly.
''IViu not that comfort you?" she
asked. grutly Surely, in his wife a
man seeks for love, for sympathy. I
cannot give you these. It would be on
ly the beginning of deep sorrow for
both if I married you, Robert, not low
ing you"
She sighed heavily.
Il might have known, he said, ris-
ING painfully "that no woman could
love me, and he gave look Of bitter
mockery at the mirrOw facing him.
Standing with his figure drawn to one
side By his crippled hip and leg, he
showed his inHrmnity far more than
when seated. His face, that was clean
sbaYen, had too, strained look, in re-
pressing the signs Of the pain it was to
him to move.
They should have strangled me in
my cradle, Margaret" he said, ''but
you shall own me to be man yet. !
have been a dreamer and a student too
long. Farewell to my love, my only
lover
1t was so unlike Robert Walborne to
be dramatic, that Margaret had been si-
lent from a panied surprise. All his
gentle courtesy, his scholarly refine
ment, seemed swept away by the bitter
ness of his anguish, this sudden waken-
inc from the sweet love dream Of
week.
He had loved Margaret always, with
q lovers devotion. She had given him
q calm, sisterly affection, with an IN
conscious acceptance of the fact that
his infrnlity would keep him always a
single man.
It was worthy of them both that he
did not plead his wealth, which was
large, or the limited income her father
had left her. WOodyale, her home,
was the property Of her fathers sister,
and would be her sons inheritance.
Mr.. OsbOne's failing health had COM
PEELED him to give up business, and his
sister had urged him to make his home
at Woodvale. Here he had died, and
Margaret knew that her inheritance
would only keep her from the necessity
of work, while DR.. WalbOrne could
give all that wealth commands. Yet
she did not love him, and to 4 mind
like hers it was therefore simply impOs-
sible to think of marrying him.
Before she recovered from her aston
ishment st his strange manner, he
limped from a room, and flew minutes
later his low carriage drove down the
avenue.
Tomorrow 1 will try to make him
see that it is not his infrmity," " she
thought. ''Yet, I cannot tell why I do
not love him. He is noble in his pa
tience, his learning, his goodness.
Why cannot I give him love for love?
1 certainly do not love any one else.
She brooded over it all day, her sweet,
womanly heart sorrOwing for the pain
she had given, yet never once cOntem-
plating the possibility of giving her
lover the answer he craved. She had
known of her fathers desire for the
marriage, but her passive acceptance OF
his death-bed joining of hands had
been purely mechanical. She did all
he wished rather than jar upon the
peace of those last moments, and when
the end came, her sorrow swept away
even the memory Of that silent prom
Use.
Had she but known it, she had giYeni
to Robert Walborne what he had need
ed all his life, keen mental spur. His
parents had petted him from infancy un-
til their death, thinking that his Grip
pled state from birth set him apart from
the usual discipline of life. He had
been educated ut home until he went
to New York to study medicine at the
hospitals, but much Of his study was
under a private teacher. theoretically,
he was physician of skill and learn
ing; practically he was a scholar only.
His friendship with Mr.. Osborne was
lifelong, and when his parents died,
the home of Margaret and her father
was the place where he passed all his
time. save that devoted to sleeping.
Mrs. Dent, the mistress at WOOdVale,
petted him as all his friends did, and
her son Robert was devoted to the Grip
pied doctor, who explained all his Lat
in lessons, and helped him over the
rough fences that bounded German pO-
etrY and French verbs.
But when he drove down the avenue
after that momentous interview with
Margaret, something Of the sOftness Of
the wealthy scholar dropped away, and
he ground his teeth hard as he said;
II will win her yet! I will prove to
her that o cripple may be a man to
love p
It was a shock to Margaret when Rob
ert, coming from school the next day,
announced:
''What do you think! Dr.. WalbOrne's
going to Germany. 1 saw him at the
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