The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1883-12-15

and more complicated, ana 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 un-
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 advantageous
most peinful one; she had not yet
summoned courage to do it. Strange
to say, she was Low most at her ease
with Louis Baldwin-oncc che had been
least so with him. She had acquired
such boundless confidence in his char
acter, and nature, and judgment-she
placed such implicit reliance on his
recttude, that the fact of his treating
her with more geniality, more expan-
siveness than before, and with APP
parently no suspicion, set her heart at
rest. She could not account for the
sensation. She felt as if Louis read
her through-knew the best and the
worst of her-she could not realize
that it must be impossible for him to
know the truth about her. The situa-
ton was a very unreal, forced one, but
Margaret lived on in it, and found it
bearable.
She found it bearable, as rule. But
there were times when it became almost
intolerable. In the midst of the dream
in which her time hoated 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 it, even to herself; sometimes
she succeeded in forgetting it for a
time, but in the actual presence of
John Mallabarr it would not be STAYED
off, 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-
er or later" hung over her spirits
like Nightmares; the more terrible
because she could perfectly appreciate
him for what he was; because she could
find in him no shadow of meanness nor
ungenerosity, nothing that was not
manly, good and admirable. She
could comprehend that he was,
taken all in all, finer man than
Louis Baldwin, because his noble traits
were spontaneous; while even the strong
points of Louis character arose out OF
kind of perversity. He seldom cared
for anything much until he found it was
difficult to learn, or to get, or to dol
and then let come what might, it must
be his, he must have it, do it, 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 as Aurora Leigh's lover said OF
her:
81 care not to maintain
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 u
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
sun used to set gorgeously, throwing a
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
happily. He turned pale and trembleC
as he looked at the rushing water ca
t reering, noisy and clear, over its brown
pebbly bed.
Let me go awayr' he said. 80
course can remember anything abou
1 when it happened, but know that my
: life was ruined at this bridge. Som,
$ people cross the Rubicon early. l hat'
a the place"
r Margaret remembered that on the day
| of her arrival she had Mhispered to her