Vermont daily transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1868-1870, 1868-08-28

water and the ladies, had gathered near
by, and now observed with evident in
terest the scene enacted before the pic
turc.
At length Mr.. Vanderwater spoke,
addressing himself to Mr.. shannon in
curt but still imprisoned phrases, in
which the emotion he felt was smother
ed but not concealed:
"Thc face of your Venus is not con-
ccption of your OWN" he asked.
Mr.. Shannon did not answer
"Is it portrait ?' continued Mr.. Van
derwater interrogatively.
Still Mr.. Shannon did not answer.
He afterwards confessed to me that
he was somewhat surprised by the
questions.
Come, sir continued Mr.. Wander
water, "you must answer. You had Il
model for that face and figurc?'
"Ycs,n answered Shannon yes, |
had model
"Who?n
II beg pardon, Mr.. Vanderwater that
you have no right to ask"
"But do asll-I will know-I have a
right"
"When you have proved your right, l
man answer the question"
"That is too easily proved, | fear.
Herc!' he exclaimed, Selling and open
ing locket which hung around his
daughters neck, "do you see this? That
is her portrait
Good Heavcns!'' exclaimed shan
non, looking at the face in the lockct.
"How came you by this"'
at is the same then ?''
"The same? yes. But nowhere
how came you with it?N
Easily enough sir. The lady-your
model, SIR" with sheer and n curl of
his lip, is my wife"
Before Shannon could speak, Mr..
Vanderwater turned and said:
"You shall hear from me again."
And full of rage the old man left the
room, bearing the ladies on his arms,
and endeavorlng as best he could, but
with little success, to conceal the emo
ton and excitement under which he
was laboring.
Shannon was utterly dumbfounded
by the denOuement, and found him on
entering the Academy, ten minutes af-
ter this occasion, endeavoring to recon-
cile the conflicting facts. He at once in
formed me of the incident-the stimuli
taneous recognition by Mr.. Vanderwat
er, his sister and daughter of the re-
markable portrait, the statement of Mr..
Vanderwater that the model was his
wife; the possession by him Of a pho
graph Of the lady, and yet the impossi-
bility Of her being as he had asserted,
his wife.
He suddenly turned to me and said {:
HAS Mr.. Vanderwater been twice mar
ried ?"
mo" answered.
"'Then his wife, if the mother of the
young lady l met this evening, is wo-
man of forty or mOreO
about f.rtytwo, | should say. She
married young"
"Then it cannot beher. But, pshaw !!
what am thinking of? OF course she
cannot be his wife, "a"
He hesitated, and 1 asked,
"Why?"
cts of no consequence. She is a
young woman, not over nineteen"
did you explain this?"
II had not time, he left me SO abrupt
ly.n
"You can of course satisfy him that
the lady is not his wife"
II can at least assure him so, for l
never saw Mrs. Vanderwater in my
life"
"Yet she has been for a year past in
Europe-the last winter in Rome.
singular, isn'tit? Nevertheless, my
model was not Mrs. Vanderwater.
"WhO was she 2"
"a young Italian girl whom l met
en- route to Florence in 1862, when was
going to Rome. She was alone-in
trouble-evidently flying from some one.
l protected her, and she accompanied
me to Rome.n
"Where you set her up in business as
a model, and otherwise protected"
stop. Harry; no jokes on that sub
ject."
"Ibeg pardon, my boy, but"
II can tell you no more than this"
"Will that satisfy Vanderwater
"To tell the truth, my dear fellow
don't care whether it does or not. l
shall explain no further"