The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-02-05
NINA.

W. A. CrOfut, in Detroit Free Press.
-.r. ~
NINA.
VICTOR BLUMENTHAL was saunterine
through the public garden, thinking
about the picture he was painting,
how the light among the trees suggest
ed certain strains of music to him,
when his eye fell upon a young girl
feeding swans, and fingered there. IF
could only carry that face home in my
minds eye and reflect it upon my can
vas!' he thought. s.She is the very i'm
age of Undine himself" Just then the
child beside her reached across the brim
of the basin to toss crumb into the
water, and lost her balance. Quick as
thought Victor sprang to the rescue,
brought the child up dripping, and con-
fronted Undine, out of whose face all
the rose had faded, all the sunshine had
fled. "Oh, how shall l thank you?
what shall I do for you?' she cried.
'If you had not saved her, how could
have lived? She is my little neigh
Dor, and 1 promised to be so careful of
her. Oh, though you are a stranger,
feel as if you were my best friend!'
Then oblige me by meeting me here
again, and telling me how your little
friend bears her drenching," he re-
turned. as he put them into a carriage.
Then he went to his studio and tried to
linn the face of Undine, and threw
down his brush in despair. And the
next day, happening into the public
garden again, there she was before him,
smiling and blushing, with the child be-
side her.
Il thought perhaps we should meet
you here" she confessed. "Jenny
brings her mothers thanks. How can
we repay you but with our prayers?"
If you could sit to me-"
81? You mean Jenny?'
II mean yourself. If you could come
to my studio and let me paint you
"Oh, you are laughing at mer'
81 was never more serious in nv
life.'
"Let us 90 them" she said.
'Your picture is long in finishing"
she remarked one day, after innumera-
BILE sittings; for Victor had every night
wiped out what he had laboriouslv
painted in during the day, so difficult
was it to imprison the shadow of his
model within the canvas, to lend to I'm
dine the soul that sat and smiled in
Nina's eyes, to endow her with the
spirit that informed the face, flushed
in the oval cheek, or trembled about
the mobile mouth.
"You are tired of coming to me. l
tax you too long"
mo-" she replied, 81 was only
thinking that if I made my flowers SO
slowly, / should starve."
Victor laughed softly. Fame is bet
ter than money"
'.And then Victor threw down his
brush. 1.-The sun is setting" he said;
let us 60 out upon the bay for inspira-
ton"
And Nina followed, nothing loath.
How :ool and sweet the hour was out
there, with sails blowing out like wings
of white gulls in the ofing, and pleas.
ure boats lettering or speeding by!
How gayly the sun smote the city s
spires, and changed the windows o1
dingy warehouses on the wharves into
precious stones like those of Aladdin s
palace! How much pleasanter all this
was than sitting at home, in dark al.
ley, over her artificial flowers, trying to
embody her faneies in velvet and satin
Victor walked to the dark alley in the
dusk with Nina, and thought of the white
lilies that grew in perfect beauty and
sweetness, though rooted in mold anc
slime.
So the friendship grew between Vic
tor an l ,Nina-Nina, the poor little
fower-maker, the last of her race, and
Victor Blumenthal, the artist and mil.
honaire-and the picture grew apace
Somehow he dared not finish it, lest
Nina should feel her debt paid, and es
cape him.
"Oh, what Is that beautiful thinpp''
she asked one day, as he trilled ,
familiar air while spreading his pallet
Ibid you make it up yourselfr'-
face all aglow.
lit is an air from an OPERA" laughed
Victor" from 4sovasor. The honor o
making it up belongs to one Verdi
Have you never heard an opera?''
Never"
''Then you shall hear one tonight
Hold! 7rovdtore is on the bill for thi
blessed night. What q coincidencer
And so, when the city lamps were try
ing to Guido the stars. Victor drew
'Nina's trembling hand within his arm
and they became part of the gay ant
fashionable world inside the theater
And what a world it was, with all tn.
glitter of lights and beautiful faces. tn.
simmer of silk and Jewels, the odor q
musk and sandal-wood, and the Kind
handsome face of Victor Blumentha
shining upon her! How the tenor SAM
out, sweet as syllables of love! how tn
soprano scared! what depths the bas
explored! what pathos, what sorrow
what delight swelled and ebbed will
the chords! Did people really love. an,
suffer, and despair, and triumph lik
this? Had she lived through it all her
sell, somewhere, somehow, that
seemed an echo of her own experience
or was it but shadow of things {,
Gomez When the curtain fell, Veto
discovered teara in her avos O+ho