The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1883-12-08
CHAPTER XII.
DRIFTING.


Blackford Grange was quiet house
enough, as far as company went; but,
as Margaret soon found, the visitors, if
few in number, were constant in their
attachment, and they consisted chiefly
of Louis Baldwin and John Mallabarr
Both these young men were bound to
the lady of the house by no ordinary
bonds of gratitude and kindness. Both
revered in her that motherhood which
for them had been so early lost. But
though they came often to the house
they were seldom there together, though
they did occasionally meet, and when
that happened, Margaret noticed that
neither of them was so perfectly free
and unconstrained as when they were
there alone. Owing to their respective
hours of duty and recreation, and to the
distance of their respective homes from
the Grange, it generally happened that
John Mallabarr' visits were paid in the
daytime and those of Louis Baldwin in
the evening. Mallabarr never failed,
while he was in the county, to present
himself three or four times a week at
the Grange, while it was rare thing
for Louis to pass day without calling.
1t was not unnatural-indeed it was
the reverse which would have been un-
natural-that Margaret Darlington
should have taken considerable interest
in these two, almost the only visitors
who ever broke the monotony of the
life there. The interest was strong, and
she almost insensibly fell into a habit of
watching them and comparing their
characters.
Given the common attributes, a love
of all that was upright and honorable;
truthfulness in theory and practice; a
high-minded love of all that was pure
and of good report in the eyes of men,
and all equally high-minGed contempt
for all that was base and low-which at
tributes characterized both Mallabarr
and Baldwin-there could scarcely have
existed two natures which were other
wise more antipathetic, the one to the
other. Baldwin was student, was es-
sentially retiring, and intensely reserved.
ical kind, and delighted rather in con-
founding his enemies than in rejoicing
with his friends. Not that he objected
to the happiness of his friends He
liked it, but they must accept the fact
of his being pleased at their prosperity
without expecting him to express his
joy, either effusively or otherwise. His
was one of the natures which, while
quite able to feel deeply, are so almost
morbidly reticent that to express
those feelings, whether of grief
or Joy, causes them a pain that
is almost physical. With Mallabar it
was Just the reverse. The one mans
nature was expansive, that of the other
reserved to fault. MallabarT's en-
thusiasm, when he felt it-and he often
did feel it--broke forth, and must out,
in words or actions. Baldwin con-
cealed his as if it had been
something to be ashamed Of.
Mallabarr was impatient and loved
to see immediate effects-would give
the coat of his back or the horse from
under him if by so doing he could con-
fer some instant good, or remove some
insolent obstacle. Baldwin was slow
and patient work laboriously
toward a given end, and never lose
sight of it. Mallabarr was apt to for
get in day or two things about which
he had shown more excitement than
Louis could have shown concerning the
dearest and deepest wish of his life.
When Margaret knew them both better
she said that the impression which the
presence and conversation-the Wesen,
to use an untranslatable German phrase
of the one left. was like the sensation
one experienced ON beholding a high
tide on a sunny day, with west wind
blowing from the water. That left by
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