Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-12-21

| Heaven forbid, my dear child! But
you must wish to leave us-to have some
change from this monotonous life.''
"Why, do you wish me TO leave you,
Mrs. Lascelles?'
THAT is just what 1 do NOT want. Z"
she answered. eagerly. perhaps to-
ward Christmas l might take holiday.
At present, If you will believe me, /
had much rather stay here; and
Rupert would not like me to CO."
'None of us would like you to 90.
But your friends. your relations"
81 have scarcely any relations, and
no friends" answered Margaret, shrink
ing with extreme distaste from the idea
of joining the Pierces', and having to
run the gauntlet of their jOcose com
ments and meaningless badinage on the
subject of her ''whim." The idea of
these, her precious friends, being talked
over and laughed at by the Pierce fam
| lily. was too terrible: while she turned
with even greater unwillingness from
the prospect of Beckbridge Abbey. en-
livened by the society of the Misses
Percival, and with Maurice Biddulph
hanging about somewhere in the near
vicinity.
"NO." she continued; "let me remain
here, if you DO not object, at present. /
can take holiday at any time when OPP
pOrtunity offers"
Mrs. Lascelles was only too clad to
have the matter arranged thus. Mar
garet stayed, and reproached herself in
secret for lacking the courage to 90
away and, as she said, ''break the
spell She stayed, and the spell was
allowed TO work.
Tue summer flew by; the months
| progressed, finding her still at Black
ford Grange, still not having said any
thing decisive. or come to any conclu-
sion as to what she would do, but less
happy at the end of September than
/ she had been in the middle of July;
sometimes, indeed, very unhappy
Her circumstances were growing more
and more complicated, and the secret
spell and power welded over her by
one of the actors in her life's story
paralyzed her Judgment, her sense of
duty, the commands of reason and
| justice. One persons company. and
that of one alone, gave her unmixed
pleaSure-that OF Rupert. For him,
whatsoever she did or said was right,
and ever would be. But she was I'M
happy about Mrs. LaScelles. She had
grown to love her so dearly that the
idea of telling her she had deceived
her-even to her own advantage--was
n most painful one; she had not vet
summoned courage 10 do il. Strange
to say, she was now most at her ease
with Louis Baldwin-once she had been
least so with him. She had acquired
such boundlesS confidence in his char
scter, and nature, and judgment-she
| placed such implicit reliance on his
rect.tude, that the fact of his treating
her with more geniality, more expan-
siveness than before, and with ap-
| parently no suspicion. set her heart at
rest. She could not account for the
! sensation. She felt as if Louis read
I her through-knew the best and the
worst of hcr-she could not realize
that il must be impossible for him to
/ know the truth about her. The situa-
/ ton was very unreal, forced one, but
/ Margaret lived on in il, and fourd it
I bcarable.
She found il Dearable, rs n rule. But
there were times when il became almost
| intolerable. In the III. DIST of the dream
/ i'm which her time iloated away, one fig
ure stood out with terrible reality;
one fact forced Itself relentlessly upon
her. She tried to stave off the admis-
sion of il, even to herself; sometimes
she succeeded in forgetting it for a
time, but in the actual presence of
John Mallabarr il would not be stared
of. would not be denied. He was gen
tie with her, she knew, gentle and calm,
but his nature was still the same. He
was hot-tempered, fiery and impulsive,
he was in love with her, and would,
man-like, sooner or later break down
the puny little barriers she strove to
erect between them, would demolish
them with one stroke of his hand;
would put his question and have his
answer. The prospect of that ''soon-
or or later" hung over her spirits
/ like nightmare; the more terrible
because she could perfectly appreciate
| him for what he was; because she could
| find in him no shadow of meaAness nor
ungenerosity, nothing that was not
manly, good and admirable. She
could comprehend that he was,
taken all in all, n finer man than
| Louis Baldwin, because his noble traits
were spontaneous; while even the strong
points of Louis character arose out of
n kind of perversity. lie seldom cared
for anything much until he found * WAS
/ difficult to learn, or TO get, or 10 do;
and then let como What might, it must
be his, he must have il, do il, get il.
and the more the obstacles in the course.
the more doggedly he persisted in re-
moving them. Margaret knew it; she
knew that with John Mallabarr kind
ness and chivalrousnesS were sponta-
neous things, while with Louis gener-
OSity of conduct often resulted from
deliberate calculation, not of profit, but
of what it was right, and good, and
! just to do. Mallabarr always knew it
by instinct and did it with Joy. She
knew it, but she might have said of
Louis rs Aurora Leigh's lover said of
her:
IL care not 90 maintain
y thousand women have not larger eyes.
Enough that she alone has looked at me
| with eyes that large or small, have won my
| soul!'
She was not happy in anticipating
the day when John Mallabarr should
burst the bonds of etiquette and demand
to know why she could not love him.
Meantime the account of the days
which passed between July and Sep
TENDER may be omitted They were
monotOnous in their very swiftncss of
passage. The summer that year was a
long and glorious one. They almost
lived out of doors, so much so, that
Margaret grew. by long intimacy. quite
accustomed to the uncanny garden. and
loved above everything to stand on the
gray stone bridge, looking upward
toward the house, behind which the
/ am. neal 40. a.e
curious, unearthly light, like that
neither of night nor day. on all things
around. Rupert was unusually well;
he had no more sudden. painful attacks;
he began To walk little more. and,
supported by Margaret and Louis. had
even hobbled down to the aforesaid
bridge and back They trusted that BY
some such means, his superstitious
dread OF the spot might be overcome,
but the experiment did not turn out
| hanui1r Ia fnrpoI r.alo 81 n