Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-01-17
CHAPTER XII.
HEIRS AND HEIRESSES,


| 1t was about the middle of July that
Mrs. Lascelles one day surprised Mar
garet by saying: my dear, we ought
to arrange about your holidays. You
will want a holiday.
Taken by surprise, Margaret had no
plausible excuse at hand, and said, has
tily:
'.Why, do you wish me to leave you,
Mrs. Lascelles?"
Heaven forbid, my dear childi But
you must wish to leave us-to have
some change from this monotonous
life
''That is just what do NOT want"
she answered, eagerly. "Perhaps to-
ward Christmas might take a holiday.
AT present, if you will believe me. I
had much rather stay here, and
Rupert would not like me to 60"
sNone of us would like you to go.
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
Perciyal, and with Maurice Biddulph
hanging about somewhere in the near
vicinity.
mo" 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 glad to
have the matter arranged thus. Mar
garet stayed, and reproached herself in
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 LIES 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 advantageous
a most painful one; she had not yet
summoned courage to do it. 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
acter, 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 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 very unreal, forced one, but
Margaret lived on in it, and found it
bearable.
She found it pearable, as rule. But
there were times when it became almost
intolerable. In the m; DIST of the dream
in which her time floated 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 stared
of, would not be denied. He was gen.