The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1880-02-05
WELLINGTON O., THURSDAY FEBRUARY s. 1880.

put his picture on exhibition. All tn
town was talking of it before night
"Such flesh tints! such expression! sucl
beautyr'
"Yet it does not equal the original,
said Grandelaw.
"No." returned Victor; pigment il
poor make-shift for fire and spirit. y
At about this time he received new.
that his only sister was seriously ill in
London. He was obliged to drop hi.
pencil and fly to her without so much
as bidding Nina goodbye; but he would
write and explain, he promised him
self. In the meantime Grandelaw found
occasion to make friends with Nina.
She had happened into a shop to pur.
chase materials for her work; she had
laid her pocket-book down for an in.
slant, and not till she had nearly
reached the door did she discover that
she had taken up, not her own, but an
others plethoric purse. At the same
moment a strange hand detained her,
and she was accused of theft. "This
lady is a friend of mine," said Grande-
law, stepping forward to her rescue,
having followed her into the shop
" she is friend of mine" and the &C
cuser begged thousand pardons, and
obsequiously bowed himself out OF
sight
After this what could Nina do but
accept him at his own valuationP How
could she avoid meeting him in her
walks, and allowing him to accompany
herp how refuse admittance to one who
had befriended herP And he knocked
often, and watched her at her pretty
toll, and the intimacy progressed.
Sometimes she opened her door, and
showed q beaming face, but the smile
would fade soon. At other times he
observed that she started when q foot
step paused outside; she expected some
one, answered absently, listened to his
batteries with a far-away look in her
soft eyes. One day Grandelaw deter
mined to probe the wound.
Ibid you not sit to Victor Blumen-
thai for his UndineP" he asked. cit
was q picture worth painting; he must
have had q thousand sittings."
"Not nearly so many" sighed Nina.
al should have been Jealous, if 1 had
been Mrs. Blumenthal."
"Jealousr' repeated Nina" Mrs.
His motherP"
"His wife-Victor's wife"
"His wife!-Victor Blumenthal's
wifer' ... --'---
30, then, perhaps you did not know
he was marriedp
"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 Theodora- If you doubt it,
will find you the notice of his marriage
among my file of papers. But of course
you have no interest in 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 wandering stars, and the needle
in her hand. "Of course J e
is married." she added, in lighte-,
tone, "only the idea never occurred to
me before-it took me unawares."
What had Victor Blumenthal meant,
she asked herself, "by those words q
thought too tender" by glancss that
made love palmer than speechP Why
had he held her hand till she blushed,
and kissed the pink finger-tips? Why
had he sought her out, only to break
her heart? Did he not love his cousin
And then she hid her face
in her pillow, remembering how her
heart had gone out to q married man.
woman's lover, and she had
mistaken him for her own! Doubtless
this was why she had neither seen nor
heard from him for so long; he had di-
vined her heart, and conscience had
made a coward of him. But it should
never be said of her that she wore her
heart on her sleeve. And when Victor
with the sister whom he had
Just succeeded in snatching from the
valley of shadows, having written to
Nina, but in his anxiety mailed the let
ter without an address, she had been
engaged to Mr.. Grandelaw for month
and had gone to visit his moth
er in neighboring town till the we'd
ding should take place, without leaving
any trace behind her. Grandelaw had,
in fact, prosecuted her into consent.
A thousand things had conspired ir
his favor. She had fallen i'll and
into debt, and work had failed, and
had sent his own physician
to her, with fruits and flowers and
wines, had taken her out in his carriage
when air was prescribed, and te1
ended by proposing to take care of h er
all her life, by winning reluctant con-
sent to endow her with all his world,
goods. Victor had deceived her, o.
rather she had taken too much for
granted, and had deceived herself, and
what better could she DO than reward
the devotion of Grandelaw, who as
sured her that he had love enough for
them both?
Everybody was very kind at Laurel
Lodge; everything was fine enough to
win a mercenary heart, if Nina had
owned one. Nobody limited that
was making an unequal
One day when Nina re-
turned from gallop across the hills
with Grandelaw, there was tall,
gracious woman waiting for them on
the veranda, who allowed Grandelaw
to kiss her hand, and made Nina
stately bow.
Have the skies fallen, that we catch
larksP" asked Nina's lover.
:" see that you have already caught
one," laughed his cousin Stella
"Stella has come to look at her
rival" said Mrs. Grandelaw, when
Nina bade her good night. ave feared
that my son would marry Stella some
day. She thought so herself, but dis
approve of cousins marrying"
"Did she love himp' gasped Nina.
81 dare say she loved him we'll
but one survives these things"
20, how she must hate mer' cried
Nina.
But if Cousin Stella hated or loved,
she knew how to disguise her feelings;
nobody could be gayer or SUMMER than
she during those days. She sparkled
with repsrtee and anecdote. and shook
her listeners with gales of laughter.
Perhaps she was showing Grandelaw
what mistake he had made to choose
this sad, shadowy woman instead of
herself.
81 have been sitting for my por-
trait" she said one evening. Nina's
heart gave little stir; had she not sat
l.