Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1880-02-05
on make it up yourself !"-her face all

aglow.
Sc 1t is an air from au OPERA" laughed
Victor" from TropatOrc. The honor
of making il up belongs to one Verdi.
Have you never heard an opera 2"
"Never."
"Then you shall hear one tonight.
Hold Trouatorc is on the bill for this
blessed night. What a coincidence"
And 80, when the city lamps were trying
to Guido the stars, Victor drew Nina's
trembling hand within his own, and they
became Il part of the gay and fashionable
world inside the theatre. And what a
world it was, with all the glitter OF lights
and beautiful faces, the simmer of silk
and jewels, the odor of musk and sandal
wood, and the kind handsome face of
Victor Blumenthal shining upon her !!
How the tenor sang out, sweet as sylla-
bles Of love how the soprano scared
what depths the bass explored what pa-
thos, what sorrow, what delight swelled
and ebbed with the chords Did people
really love and suffer and despair and
triumph like this ? Had she lived through
it all herself, somewhere, somehow, that
it seemed like an echo of her own expe-
rience? or was it but a shadow of things
to come? When the curtain fell, Victor
discovered tears in her eyes. Other per-
pie were laughing around her, one tall
gentleman almost stopped to look under
her hat as he passed, bowed to her COM
panion, and would have joined them had
Blumenthal been less frigid. 81 have
seen that gentleman before" said Nina !;
"he came with lady who was in hurry
for some flowers l had promised. He
called her Stella"
cit was his cousin, Stella Grande-
law" said Victor.
One day Victor, who could no longer
find pretext to continue the sittiugs,
put his picure on exhibition. All the
town was speaking of it before night.
"Such fresh tints Such expression !!
Such beauty !!
"Yet it does not equal the original"
said Grandelaw.
"No," said Victor; "pigment is a
poor makeshift for fire and spirit"
At about this time he received news
that his only sister was seriously i'll III
London. He was obliged to drop his
pencil and fly to hsr, without 50 much as
bidding Nina good-by; but he would
write md explain, he promised himself.
In the meantime Grandelaw found occa-
sion to make friends with Nina. She
had happened into shop to purchase
materials for her work; she Ind laid her
pocketbook down for an instant, and not
till she had nearly reached the door did
she discover that she had taken up, not
her own, but another's piethoric purse.
At the same moment n strange hand de-
tanned her and accused her Of theft.
"This lady is n friend of mine," said
Grandelaw, stepping forward to her res
cue, having followed her into the shop
"she is friend Of mine;" and the &C
cuser begged n thousand pardons, and
obsequiously bowed herself ont of sight.
After this, what could Nina do but ac-
cept him at his own valuation? How
could she avoid meeting him in her
walks, and allowing him to accompany
her? How refuse admittance to one who
had hefriended her? And he knocked
often, and watched her in her pretty toll,
and the intimacy progressed. Some
times she opened her door and showed
beaming face, but the smile would fade
soon. At other times he observed that
she started when a footstep paused out;
she expected some one, answered absent
ly, listened to his batteries with far
away look in her soft eyes. One day
Grandelaw determined to probe the
wound.
"Did You sit to Victor Blumenthal
for his Undiue?' he asked. sit was a
picture worth painting; he must have
had thousand sittings."
"Not nearly so many" sighed Nina.
81 should have been jealous, if l had
been Mrs. Blumenthal.
"Jealous." repeated Nina" Mrs.
Blumeutha !! His mother -
"His wife-Nictor' wife"
"His wife Victor Blumenthal's
wife /"
sob, then, perhaps you did not know
ne was married."
He never spoke of it.
Because everybody knew it. Come,
Miss Nina, don't look at me as if | was
to blame. Victor Blumenthal was mar
ried more than two years ago to his
cousin Theodore. If you doubt it, |
will find you the notice of his marriage
among my file Of of the Tribune. But
of course you have no interest i'll it.
What is it to you or me?'
"Nothing, nothing, she answered.
81 do not doubt it." But she had grown
very white, and her eyes shone like wan
dering stars, and the needle tremhled in
her hand. "Of course he is married, :"
she added, in a lighter tone, only the
idea never occurred to me before--it took
me unawares."
What had Victor BIumenthal meant,
she asked herself, "by those words n
Al l. -. IL -