The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-04-02

will tell me what / have done to offend
her. Il don't know she said, but if
you will go after her, she will tell you,
| am sure, and you must make it up
with her.. / am Grace's slave and
yours. so came. Nov, Miss Fairfax,
will you explainp HoU have offended
youP"
at is not that you offend me, but |
am sure offend y0u," said Mabelle,
looking up with face literally ailame,
and confronting the calm, bronzed face,
and the steady dark eyes of Philip
fixed earnestly upon her own. A look
of surprise was dawning in them as he
said
"Oflend me-! am afraid am still
in the dark How could you by any
possibility offend meP YouF'
81 mean that even to look at me must
arouse painful recollections in your
mind. 1t can not be pleasant to you for
me to be here, after-oh, you can not
have forgotten the last time we met
and-and-Angela"
The word was out, and dead silence
supervened, during which, after one
flash from Philips eyes, his countenance
scarcely changed. He looked thought
fully at the head of DIR. johnson, while
he still gently stroked back the ears of
that companionable friend of man; and
the movement of his hand maintained its
regular, unexcited rhythm. Mabelle
sat looking at him breathlessly, and
doubt fear, bewiiderment, succeeded
one another in mad chase through her
mind, as she saw, first that dubious
flash of his eyes, then the still more
dubious half smile which curved his
lips, and then the unshakable gravity,
without trace of sternness or dis
pleasure, which followed. He did not
speak; he seemed to be lost in reflec-
ton, till at last, looking up to Mabelle,
after what appeared to her a week
of agitated emotion, she found his eyes
as calm, as steady, as serene as those of
u child.
care you angry?" she murmured,
timidly touching his arm. Il did not
mean to say that; but, oh! | have
never forgotten it, and now believe
you hare"
Philip arrested the hand, and held II
in his own as he said:
"Do you think me so vindictivc, Ma
BELIEF"
"You have been so dreadtully in.
juredl" she said.
"You really believe me so vindic,
tive" he repeated, and though he was
amused he found he could not smile.
II remember you suffered dreadfully al
that time. You were punished for a
. sin which you could not have commit.
ted If your life had depended upon IT,
You we're i'll, and before it all came out
Q you had endured tortures. / remember
Grace wrote me about it at the time,
but at the time, instead of pitying you,
p / was, am afraid, hardening my heart
3 and cursing your sister,"
3 A little quick sob broke from Mabelle
I as she tried 10 draw her hand away, but
? could not, and Philip went ou:
!, "And il is you who suffer still. Yor
t arc so constituted, l suppose. All the
s conscientiousness of your family wa
# bestowed upon you, and you have too
. much OF il, and others have too little,
n And you imagine me nursing anger il
r my heart against you; cherishing envy
t hatred and malice all these years!
Il must say you have as nearly as posi-
}, BILE succeeded in offending me. /
v shows me that / must have behaved
Z abominably in my first moments of dis
y illusionism for you TO have thought thu
n OF me"
IL OF course, by this time Mabelle wa
IS dissolved in tears, with DIR. johnson b,
her side in an attitude Of profoun'
7, melancholy, his head and ears droopin,
n with dolorous curve. She manage,
10 to say, however:
Ie "And you mean that you have quite
1t quite got over-forgiven, l mean tina
-n
* 'Inever loved your sister for one me
lt ment, after found she had lied to me.
Of he said, in voice whose hardness drie
it Mabelle's tears like magic. "0n tn
contrary, hated her with an unreasor
IN ing. contemptuous hatred--a bad fee
le ing--for, after all, she WIS made sc
te What enraged me was that could mo-
le with my love for her, shake of its O.
TO fects upon my mind and character
That was impossible. My love for he
Sc had made ME soft, suppose, and he
Of deceit made me hard; and hard an
d. rough shall remain all my life in consc
quence. No doubt you Know. Mi:
d, Fairfax, that there is said 10 be It'd
IS in the affairs of men-and there is also
ly generally speaking, time when tn
stuff of which man is made harden
!" into shape, and no after-events can d
IL more than somewhat modify the col
o. ners and outlines of that shape. Moth
r. ing short of smashing him to pieces
making an end Of him-can do more
I'd When your sister Tilted me forgive th
u word-I am apt to speak rather 10
er plainly for THE ears of young ladies',
know -
e. "But not for those Of women who n
rt spect the TRUTH" interposed Mabell'
lis decisively. though in smothered yoic'
a. "No; that Is we'll said. You al
~ like Grace, see. and prefer straigh
e. forward expressions. Well, when you
or sister Tilted me, the stuff | was mad
a of took very rough, marred sort
We shape; It got twist, and nothing ca
We ever make 1t straight again. or turn n
rd into an agreeable, or gentle, amiab
i'll character. hut 1t did not make me o
utter brute. rs you seem to think. ~.
ali did not deprive me Of the power to di