The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1884-01-13

she lay all night, looking at the lamp hnu
thinking that Lippo had not had his supper.
Next day her mind was clearer, and the
physician was brought from the town. He
shook his head, looked at her keenly aud
said, paralysis" Too many years OF hard
work and scant food had caused It, and she
would never walk, probably never speak
again.
"You must change places with your sister,
young man. he said, looking from under his
lowered eyebrows at Lippo; '''tis a pity you
did not do II sooner"
Lippo looked very pale aud grave, und
Mhrgretta's heart sank within her. She
knew he had always hated sick people; his
bright, sensuous nature shrunk aghnst from
suffering, even in others; 1t filled him with
repulsion. Sho struggled hard TO speak, to
beg his forgiveness for having brought this
on him. but she could only make innrticulate
murmur
Lippo hated himself for this feeling, yet
he could not overcome il; twas part OF hb4
nature. When he tended Margretta his flesh
writhed away from hers; when he kissed
her, as OF old, he was filed with the hercrst
~repngnance, full of the animal instinct that
teaches the brutss to kill the sick and MANNED
OF their kind.
Margretta felt somewhat of this, and bit
terly grieved that she should have brought
this trial upon him. She would have been
his providence, and now she was his curse
What girl would marry Lippo now that hs
had this burden in his cotta3si and his soft
beauty must be mRrred by the painful, in
cessant labor that had brought her to this.
She wanted 10 speak to him, to tell him 10
send her away to the almshouse, but could
only follow him about with sunkeu, appeal
ing eyes.
Day by day Lippo became gloomier, more
discontentel. Every day he must rise before
day to fill ter hours with the drudgery and
coarse labor Of the peasant. Al night when
he came home the cottage was dirty and un-
comfortable and the food not cooked, aud he
would 60 gulky and weary to his loft There
he lay and neVolved his project OF escape.
The day he sold the pearls a man had. as he
passed along the Via Carlotti singing,
stopped him, asked him many questions, and
said that his voice was as beautiful as the
voices Of the great tenors who sang in Rome,
and II he would coma and study with him he
would gain inone night more than the price
Of twenty strings of pearls.
He had intended to ask Margretta to sell
the fields and go with him, but now that was
all of no use. He must give up all the beauti-
fnl life that hal opened out before him, and
Lippo had heard enough of tho life of great
tenors To imagine its pleasures. He would
have been proud and naughty to the chorus
singers aud the servants, and he would have
worn Hhe ne" clothes, not the old cnst-on
cont OF which Mnrgretta was so proud; aud
lie would have eaten only the dantlest food
and been idle all the day in the sunshine and
among the flowers Then, too, he was beau
tldl he knew, and the great ladies would
have loved him; he had never cared for the
peasant girls. but the great Indies were DIFF
%fefent, with their small soft hands and
white skins like lilies. Ali the lights, the
perfume, the applause, the soft. dainty, indo-
lence OF the lifel And he must give 1t up
for thisl Must he give it upf
Murgrettn and himself were almost starry.
ing; he couldn't work as hard as she could,
and the " little fields did not keep them. it
would be much better If he went away and
sang and sent Margretta money that should
give her comforts and some one TO wait on
her. she might miss him, but then he worked
all tue day and she hardly saw him, and
Hnd-wel he might as well acknowledged
himself-thnt he was going to do q selfish,
henrtless thing
He rolled about In the straw, and clutched
his curis; he could not give up that bright,
beautiful ure-the alternative was too dark
and dreadful Margretta would be glad OF
IL after awhile, when he sent home money.
II he went at all it was better 10 go at once.
The neighbors wouldn't understand, and lie
shrank from the pain of telling Margretta.
Long hHfore daylight he swung himself
down from the window. He shivered a little
In the cold morning air, and his heart ached
when he Thought of his sistar IA baJe