The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1884-03-29

carried her in and laid her on tue bed, where
she lay all night, looking at the lamp and
thinking that Lippo had not had his supper.
Next day her mind was clearer, aud the
physician was brought from the town. He
shook his head, looked at her keenly and
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 pity you
did not do it sooner"
Lppo looked very pale and grave, and
Margretta's heart sank within her. She
knew he had always hated sick people; his
bright, sensuous nature shrunk aghast from
suffering, even in other; it filed him with
repulsion. She struggled hard to speak, to
beg his forgiveness for having brought this
on him. but she could only make inarticulate
murmurs.
Lippo hated himself for this feeling, vet
he could not overcome it; twas part of his
nature. When he tended MAJ yretta his flesh
writhed away from her's;. when. he kissed
her, as OF old, he was filed With the fiereest
repugnance, full of the animal instinct that
teaches the brutes to kill the sick and manned
of their kind
Margretta felt somewhat of this, and Bit
terly grieyed that she should have brought
this trial upon him. She would have been
his providence, aud now she was his curse
What girl would marry Lippo now that he
had this burden in his cottage? and his soft
beauty must be marred by the painful, in
cessant labor that had brought her to this.
She wanted to speak to him, to tell him to
send her away to the almshouse, bat coul
only follow him about with sunken, appeal.
ing eyes.
Day by day Lippo became gloomer, more
discontented Every day he must rise before
day to I'LL ten hours with the drudgery and
coarse labor Of the peasant. At night when
ne came home the cottage was dirty and un-
comfortable and the food not cooked, and he
would go sulky and weary to his loft There
ne lay and revolved his project of escape
The day he sold the pearls 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 if he would come aud study with him he
would gain in one 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
full life that had opened out before him. and
,Lippo had heard enough of the life of great
tenors to imagine its pleasures He would
have been proud and naughty to the chorus
singers and the servants, and he would have
worn fine new clothes, not the old cast-off
coat of which Margretta was so proud; and
he would have eaten only the dantiest food
and been idle all the day in the sunshine and
among the flowers Then, too, he was beau
tiful he knew, and the great ladies would
have loved him; he had never cared for the
peasant girls, but the great ladies were diff
ferent, with their small soft hands and
white. skins like lilies. All! the lights, the
perfume, the applause, the soft, dainty, indo-
lence OF the hfel And he must give it up
for this! Must he give it ups
Margretta and himself were almost stary-
ing; he couldn't work as hard as she could
and the two 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, butthen he worked
all the day and she hardly saw him, and
and-well he might as well acknowledge-to
himself-that he was going to do selfish.
heartless thing.
He rolled about in the straw, and clutcbed
his curls; he could not give up that bright.
beautiful life-the alternative was too dark
and dreadful. Margretta would be glad of
it after awhile, when he sent home money.
Ii he went at all it was better to go at once
The neighbors wouldn't understand. and he
shrank from the pain of telling Margretta.
Long before daylight he swung himself
down from the window. He shivered little
In the cold morning air, and his heart ached
when he thought of his sister, He half
thought he would go in and kiss her good
by, but his courage might fail if he did, and
by the time the streaming sunlight woke
Margretta he was many miles unt. his road
to Rome.
She lay there all day-hungry, thirsty and
very puzzled. What hal become of Lippoa
Maybe he was ill, up in his loft, and needed
her. She fought with dreadful energy for
power to move, to call, but the holy virgin
worked no miracle in her favor She imap-
ined all manner of explanations of his alb
sence, and when Ruff came in in the
evening she was half mad with fear and
anxiety.
Ruff came to tell her that the carrier had
met Lippo in the early morning, hurrying
away from the farm; and had called to him.
but he would not answer, and kept swiftly on
his way.
Andrea said a stranger had talked to Lippo
in his shop and had asked him to come to
Rome, and told him great tales of the wealth
he should make with his voice. 1t was ON the
road that led to Rome that the carrier had
met him.
Margretta hardly understood at first; but
gradually the truth dawned upon her. Her
bambino, her beautiful boy, had deserted her
left her to die alone
She made no sign; she could say no word;
but she turned her gaunt face and haggard
eyes to the wall