The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-09-20

retreat of Minors Il was luxuriouslF
furnished, and it communicated, by d
half-glass door shrouded by heavy
amber damask curtains, with large
conservatory, which opened on the
| terrace walk that ran along one side Of
the house. Here she sat in the dusky
light, pensive and thoughtful, on the
evening after her husbands departure
The gentlemen were all in the billiard
room. hard at work with the balls and
cues, trying to settle some disputed
wager before the half-hour bell rang
to summon them to their dressing
rooms Theladies were already at their
toiiettes; and Ellinor, who had dressed
earlier than usual, was quite alone. 1t
was too dark for her to read or work,
and she was too weary and listless to
ring for lamps; so she sat with her
hands living idly in her lap, bordering
! upon what had been said at the break
fast table of her sometime guardian,
Horace Margraye.
Suddenly footstep behind her, fall
ing softly on the thick carpet, reused
her from her reve1ie, and she looked up
with startled glance at the glass over
the low chimney piece.
In the dim fifelight she saw, reflected
in the shadowy depths of the mirror,
the haggard and altered face of her
guardian, Horace Margfaye.
He wore loose, heavy great-coat,
and had his hat in his hand. He had
evidently only Just arrived.
He drew back onseeine Ellinor; but,
as she turned round to speak to him,
the freight behind her left her face in
the shadow, and he did not recognize
her.
q beg your pardon,' he said, :" for
disturbing you. | have been looking
everywhere for Sir Lionel"
MIR. Margrave! Don you know me?
1t is l--Ellinorl''
His hat fell from his slender hand,
and he leaned against high back easy
chair for support.
Ehinor-Mrs. Dalten-v0u herei
heard you were in Paris, or |
should never-that is-I'---
For the first time in her life Ellinor
Dalton saw Horace Margrave so agitated
that the stony mask Of elegant indiffer-
ence and gentlemanly sang trOid, which
he ordinarily wore. entirely dropped
away, and left him--himself.
Mr. Margrave, y she said, anxieusly,
"you are annoyed at seeing me here.
Oh, how altered you are! They were
right in what they said this morning.
You are, indeed, altered. You must have
been very i'll" *! .
Horace Margrave. was himself again
by this time, He picked up his hat
| and, dropping lazily into the easy-chair,
said; ------.--..-..-,---.---
YES; have had rather severe at
tack feyer-exhaustion. The doctors,
in fact, were so puzzled as to what they
should caH my illness that they actually
tried to persuade me that 1 had nerves
! ike a young lady who has been Tilted
by life guardsman, or forbidden by
her parents to marry a country curate
with seventy pounds per annum, and
three duties every Sunday, A nervous
lawyer! My dear Mrs Dalton, can you
imagine anything so atsurdP Sir James
| Clarke, however insisted on my pack
ing my portmanteau, and setting off for
Mount Blanc, or something of that kind;
and |, being heartily tired Of the Courts
of Probate and Chaneery, and FeIulam
Buildings, GTay's Inn, was only too glad
to follow his advice, and take my rail-
way ticket for Geneva sd
"And Switzerland has restored you?n
sin a:measure, perhaps; but not en-
tireE. You can see that Fam not yet
very strong, when even the pleasing
emotion of meeting Unexpectedly with
| my sometime ward is. almost too much
! for my ultra-ladylike nerves, But you
were saying, my dear Mrs. Dalton, that
they had been talking of me here"
''Oh, at the reakfast-table this MORN
ing. When your visit was announced,
one of the gentlemen said he had met
| you In Switzerland, and that you were
looking ill-unhappy." ...s-
Unhappy! All, my. dear Mrs Dial
ton, what q misfortune it is for a man to
have 3 constitutional pallor, and head
of dark hair! The world viii insist
upon elevating him into blighted be-
| ing, with a chronic wolf hard at work
under, his waistceat Iuse myself up by
working too hard over difficult will
case, in which some iresome old man
! leaves his. youngest son forty thousand
pounds upon half sheet of nete-paper;
and the world, meeting me in SNitser-
land. travelling to recruit myself, comes
home and writes me down--unhappy!
Now, isn't it too badP III were blessed
with red hair and fat face, l might
break my heart once IN three months
without any of my sympathetic friends
troubling themselves about the tract
ure.' -
MY dear Mr.. Margraye,' ? said Eli
nor-her voice, in spite of herself, trem-
bling little am really now quite
an old married woman; and, presuming
on that fact, may venture to speak to
you with entire candor, may not?''
with entire candor, certainly"
There is the old SILVER in the dark eve
lashes, and the white lids droop over the
handsome brown eyes, as Horace Mar
grave looks down at the hat which
swings backwards and forwards in his
listless hand.
Then, Mr.. Margraye, my dear guard
ian, for will will call you by that
old name, which can remember speak
ing for the very first time on the day Of
my poor fathers funeral. Ohn' she
added, passionately, how we'll how
well remember that dreary, wretehed,
terrible day! | can see yon now, as
saw you then, standing in the deep en-
brasnre of the window in the little
library, in the dear, dear Scottish home,
looking down at me so compassionately,
with dark, mournful eyes. l was such
a child then. can hear your low, deep
voice, as heard it on that day. saving
to me; " Ellinor, your dead father has
i placed solemn trust in my hands
am young. Imay not be as good or as
high-minded man as, to his confding
mind, seemed to be; there may be
something of constitutional weakness
4 and irTesolution in my character, which
/ may render me, perhaps, by no means
the fittest person he could have chosen
for your guardian; but so deeply do I
feel the trust implied in his d wing words,
that / swear, by my hope in Heaven, by
my memory of the dead, by my honor
as man and gentleman, to discharge
the resuy1nsihilitiesr irlnosel l1flon me