Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1871-11-16

presently see, even his own wife.
Through all the long hours of the
night which we have seen he passed
after Dr. Gray's visit, the burning sense
Of being different from other men has
stung and racked him with Thousand
fortunes, and caused him to debate so
long in his own mind before coming to
a determination.
OF the ordinary pleasures Of life Bar
ton Marie had scarcely any knowledge.
Long ago, in that brief period which he
called his boyhood, and before the
knowledge came Of his being so differ
ent from those about him, he had in
deed cherished vague dreams of love:
of some imposibly beautiful woman
who should one day beam upon him,
and % whom he might confide all the
sweet thoughts that thrilled like music
through his soul, and which he never
dared to tell to any one on earth. But
the happy vision was soon dlspelled.
Contact with the wcrld-the world that
filed the little Cornish village where he
was born taught him rudely enough
that such treasure was not for him.
Then across the darkness of his life his
art cleaned like a star, and he labored
-ficrcely and reyengefully at first,
calEly and lovingly afterward-to gam
for himself the fame and position which
should lessen the gulf that separated
him from others.
His reward came at last, az it rarely
fails to when it has been fairly earned.
He grew famous, and tolerably rich,
but his heart was still empty. At
thirty-seyen, when the5ierceness ofthe
struggle was over, and The found breath
ing time, for the first time in his life
he felt terribly lonely. His old moth
or, who had shared his evil and his
prosperous days with him, was dead;
and after the days work was over,
when he sat hoWu at his tirealde he
lOnged to fill the vacant chair opposite
him with some one upon whom he
could pour ont tine long pent-up love
of a dc5olate life.
Itwas during brief visit to his ma
tive country That Barton first met the
girI who WAS 90 become his wife. \
widow Mdy and her daughter had come
to reside there during his absence,
birth, they speedily attracted the
painters notice by their marked differ
cuce from the other inhabitants OF the
Cornish village, and me passed much Of
his time in their society, The mother
was a gentle amiablc woman with,
perhaps, tendency to revert some
what too often to the days OF their
bygonc prosperity; but Marie Thought
this natural enough, and would have
overlooked far grayer faults for the
daughters sake. She, he said
10 himself, when he had
returned to his lonely home
at Chelsea, was pearl Many other
men had said SO who had seen her fair
Young face for the first time, had heard
her sweet voice singing the old-fash
toned ballads which men love best; or
had caught glimpse OF her dark violet
eyes, which had such an nnfathomablo
depth of thought i'll them. But all eX-
cept Marie turned away with sigh
when they learnt that those beautiful
eyes were sightless--were exquisitely
painted windows, through which the
imprisoned soul never looked forth up
on the world without Alice Prescott
had been blind from her birth.
Marie grieyed rs others had done
when he learned this ON tine first visit,
but hope whispered to him that he had
found at last the only woman he might
ever dare to ask to become his wife
without the fear of a scornful refusal
She at least would never know him as
he was outwardly; his money SO Ia /
boriously acquired, would surround
mother and daughter with the comforts
to which they had been accustomed,
could it but teach her TO love him as
he already loved her