Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-01-17
tie with her, she knew, gentle ana sa,m,

tie with her, she knew, gentle ana tain,
but his nature was still the same. Ha
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 a nightmare; 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 pervcrsity. He seldom cared
for anything much until he found it was
difficult to learn, or to get. Or to do;
and then let come what might, it must
be his, he must have it, do it, get it,
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
A 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 a
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 u
curious, unearthly light, like that
neither of night nor day, on all things
around. Rupert was unusually we'll;
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 trembled
as he looked at the rushing water ca
reering, noisy and clear, over its brown,
pebbly bed.
LET me 60 away!" he said. ''Of
course can't remember anything about
when it happened, but know that my
life was ruined at this bridge Some
people cross the Rubicon early. I hate
the place.
Margaret remembered that on the day
of her arrival she had whispered to her
self that that was her Rubicon, and she
began to think that she had been right.
At least, never again could life be to
her as it once had been, never since the
moment of first crossing that little
bridge.
FTO BE CONTINUED