The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-03-20
THE PAINTERS WtFE.

sFBut you have not told me vet,
Cyrilla, what incident the picture is
intended to represent
"lt IS intended to illustrate the
story of Ginevra, as told in Rogers
ITALY 1 dare say, you recollect
the poem in question:"
80 yes; 1 remember all about
francesca Doria and his youthful
bride, and how the latter hid herself
IN an old chest on her wedding-day
and was smothered, and her bodynot
found for ever so many years after
wards"
s'That is just the point-where
Glnevra is about to hide herself
that Theodore is trying to Illustrate.
L have sat to him l don't know how
many times already"
"And very good likeness it is of
you, my dear And the chest in
which she is about to hide herself is
painted from that real chest in the
corner there! 1t looks hundred
years old Dear, deax, it's quite
wonderful! But thought painters
always invented such things out of
their own heads
9 ne speakers were aunt and niece
@the latter a fair and slender girl of
twenty, with a singularly youthful
expression of face for one Who was
both wife and a mother. The time
was half-past nine on certain
autumn evening some half-dozen
years ago, and the place was plea
SAINT home-llke room in small villa,
IN one of the westerly suburbs of
London.
''The mention of those italian
names, Cyrilla, said Mrs. Reece.
presently, ''puts me in mind Of an
Old admirer of yours, Signor Pietro
Fastini: BY She by, do you know
where he now is?''
''No; where?" said CyYilla, quickly.
''In a lunatic asylum. He went
crazy about a year ago, and has been
under restraint ever since | don't
think you treated him well, Cyrilla.
to encourage his attentions, and then
to cast him off in the way YOU did"
Cyrilla's cheek paled suddenly:
she sank into chair, and did not
speak for minute or two. "You
have been misinformed, aunt" she
sad at last ''Signor Fastini never
received the slightest encouragement
from me. [ was attracted towards him
by his great musical talent; but it was
his own presumption that drew him
on to speak to, me as he did. Never
theless, | am truly grieved to hear of
the atfilction that has overtaken him. >
Cyrllla sat thinking deeply for
some time after her aunt's departure.
gong, In memory, through all those
phases of her life in which the
young italian had been an actor.
Her reverie was brought to an end
by the clock on the mantel-piece
Ginning eleven.
She got up from her seat with a
little sigh, and went into her dress
ing-room, which opened out of the
room IN which she had been sitting.
and bathed her hands and face; and
changed her eVening-dress for a com
1ortable white wrapper; and unbound
her yellow hair, letting it fall in q
rich sheaf down her shoulders: for
Theodore had gone out tonight to a
supper-party given by a brother
artist who was about to enter the
holy state of matrimony, and She
lh1a,d had promised to sit up for him; and
Iheodore, on his part, had promised
to be home soon after midnight.
Gong back into the sitting-room.
Gyrllla rang the bell, and presently
the nurse came in with baby. who.
being well-behaved young gentle
man, was happily fast asleep at this
late hour. He was deposited in
aPretty little cot close by his mothers
side You can go to bed, nurse,
and the other servants can do the
same, said Mrs. Thornhurst. 81 will
SIT up for master myself. See that
the doors and windows are all fastcn
ed before you go up stairs
When the woman was gone. Cvrilla
stirred up the low fire on The hearth
INTO titful blaze, and then took n
the first volume of a novel which had
been brought her that afternoon
from the library Theodore would
be home in an hour at the furtbest
and the time would pass pleasantly
and quickly away.
A pleasant, cosy, home-like picture
the pretty, girlish wife coiled up
gracefully in her husbands huge