The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1880-02-05
NINA.
Harper'S Bazaar.

when Ills eye 10A upOu yOuuS SuA
feeding the swans, and fingered there.
'If could only carry that face home
in my minds eye, and reflect it upon
my canvas!" he thought, ''she is the
very image of URdine herself" 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 confronted Undine, out of whose
face all the rose had faded, all the SUM-
shine had fled.
"Oh, how shall I thank you what
shall I do for you !" she cried. "If you
had not saved her now could I have
lived? She is my little neighbor, and I
promised to be 50 careful of her. Oh,
though you are a stranger, L feel as il
you were my best friend"
':Tnen oblige me by meeting me mere
again, and telling me how our little
friend bears her drenching," he returned
as he put them into q 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 beside her.
II thought perhaps we should meet
you here" she confessed. "Jenny
brings her mothers thanks. How can
we repay you but with our prayers ?"
eff you could sit to me"
81? You mean jenny"
II mean yourself. If you could come
to my studio and let me paint you"
s'You are laughing at me !"
~ was never more serious in my
life."
''Let us go then" she said.
"Your picture is long in finishing"
she remarked one day, after innumera-
bic sittings; for Victor had every night
wiped out what he had laboriously
painted in during the day, SO difficult
was it to ;mprison the shadow of his
model within the canvas, to lend TO IN
dine the soul that sat and smiled in
Nina 'seyes, to endow. her with the spir-
it that informed the face, flushed in the
oval. cheek, or 3re1nb1ed about the mo-
bile mouth. -. &--. !; +: p, -.
"You are tired Of coming to me-. I
tax you too long" ::
"No," she replied: IT was only think
ing that if I'made my flowers so slowly,
should starve." ~
Victor laughed softly. "Fame is bet
ter than money"
''And life is better than fame."
And then Victor threw down his
BRUSH. ''The sun is setting," he said;
s'let us 60 out upon the bay for inspira-
ton" -,
And Nina followed, nothing loath.
How cool and sweet the hour was out
there, with sails blowing out like wings
of white gulls in the offng and pleasure
boats lettering or speeding by l. How
gaily the sun smote the cityy's spires,
and changed the windows Of dingy
warehouses on the warves into precious
stones like those of Aladdin's palace |!
How much pleasanter all this was than
sitting at home, in a dark, alley, over
her artificial flowers, trying to embody
fapcies in satin and velvet!
Victor walked to the dark alley in
the dusk with Nina, and thought Of the
white lilies that grew ), into perfect
; beauty and sweetness, though rooted
in mould and slime. .:.s<.... .....
So the friendship grew between Victor
and Nina Nina, the poor little flower
maker, the last of her race, and Victor
Blumenthal, the artist and millionaire
and the picture grew apace. Some
how he dared not finish it, lest Nina
should feel her debt paid, and escape
him. y, .,. z.,.,..G. j..
"Oh, what is that beautiful thing r.
she asked one day, as he trilled a famil-
lar air, while spreading his palette.
'Did you make it up yourself ?'-her
face all aglow. ,5 =, ! =, :. : .s- =.
1T is an air from an OPERA" laughed
Victor, s'from Trovatore.: The honor of
making it up belongs to one Verdi.
have you never heard an opera p =
81 "Never." 1ls .j;e S.ss I'll Ss# 81. =
''Then you shall hear one tonight.
Hold /! Trovatore is on the bill for this
blessed night. What 9 coincid ence !"
And go, when the city lamps were try
ling to Guido the stars, Victor drew Nj
mas trembling hand within his own, and
they became q part Of the gay and fash
ionable world inside the theater. And
what q world it was, with all the glitter
of lights and beautiful faces, the glim-
mer Of silks and jewels, the odor Of musk
and sandalwood, and the kind, hand
some face Of Victor Blum enthal shining
upon her How. the tenor sang out,
sweet IS the syllables Of love how the
soprano scared !! what depths the bass
explored what pathos, 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 throughsit all her
sell, somewhere, Someho low, that itseem-
3 "a like an echo Of her own experience,
Or was ii but . shadow Of things TO Gomez
4 When the curtain fell, Victor disco