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96 = WILD MARGARET,
_, He stood, white as the marble faces looking down at. —
him, his,eyes fixed on her face, yet scarcely seeming tosee _
er. o . . me ee TE gtk
“Shame!” he.repeated, like a man who speaks during _.
some horrible dream. _ oS poet hbase
- Margaret tried to shrink from him, but his hand -held
hers ina clasp of steel. me ee ey ven
. Shame’and—you!” he said at last. ‘t You! Oh, it is
impossible.’? Then he looked in her face, bent low and‘
humbly, like a drooping lily, and he uttered a faint cry.
It was the cry of a man who has been mortally wounded.
There was silence for a moment, then he let her hand |
fall, and turned—not to forsake her, but; to hide his face
from her: Margaret waited’a second, then crept closer
to him... - : es iE
- “Will you--can you forgive me, prince?” she murmured
brokenly. .‘* I should not have come here, but—but I was
sorely tempted. I was alone—alone, and craving for sym-
‘pathy and love—and your mother and sister gave them to
me. I had no right to enter. their. presence, much less to
accept their love, but—ah, if you knew all!’ and a sigh -
choked her voice. aS ee
- “Tell me all,” he said, turning to her almost sternly; ;
‘tell meall—all! Thename of theman—-” He stopped, —
and his hands clinched tightly at his side. Mee
_ Margaret shrank back witha look of fear. Joey
_ “No, no!” she gasped; ‘nota word. It is all past and
—and buried. I am as one that is dead to the world, and
he—he is forgiven.”’ : . re
- “Forgiven!” he echoed. ‘‘Ay, by an angel; but we are_
not all angels. No; some of us are men.” .
_ His face was so awful in its wrath and craving for
vengeance that Margaret sprung to him and seized his |
_‘* Prince, what would you do?’ .
_He took her hand and dropped it from his arm with a
_ little shudder, as if her touch had. stung him; then, half
\, mad with love, half. frenzied ‘by the passionate desire for
| _. vengeance on her behalf and his own, he took her: hand
and pressed it to his lips. ce EE
‘*T understand!’ -he said hoarsely; ‘‘oh, yes; I under-
stand! He has wronged you—but you love him still!”
bh Margaret shrunk back, and covered her face with her
‘Nandsg, . : ft ?
: me he muttered; ‘you love him still. ‘Heaven help
“me : : Lo . : Ts :
. Margaret’s heart was wrung by the agony in that ery of
~ a strong man mortally stricken, and in her anguish and-
pity she fell at his feet, sobbing bitterly.» nr
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