Litchfield enquirer., 1880-08-26
THE IDOL OF AN HOUR.
4 Lila Ashlinton was the only daughter

! 2
| poor to have larger house.; but pleasant To-
cality, a locality that sasored even of the arts,
| 'tocratic,, was ore OF Mrs. Ashlinton's neees-
sary luxnries. " There were few things which
she could not live Without though, many pee
| pie Possessed of her very sniali:inconle, would
have readily given them up 3; These things
were not many tIor yet very expensive; every
penny which she could save out of the needful
expenses had to be used for the education Of
! her daughter. 5-,z,t. n
| Lila As.,ilnlcn was an artist, or rather SHE
intended to lie an artist. She was only nine
teen, and, although she had worked at the art
which she loved 80 devotedly ever since she
could work at anything, yet she had sllth
GENTLY keen and real appreciatIono OF IT to know
s ssn her mu Artist entire e was S the u
sorp.iqn Of all her faculties inthe s,i'!y7of this
one. art7-painting that Mrs. Ashlinton had
Welded to the necessities of the case, and had
| let Lila spend all the money and all the timt
at her disposal in obi aiming The education of 40
artist pure and simple, insteatl of the general
| education of lady. Mrs. Ashlinton found il
hard struggle ut first, but She had sufficient
| strong common sense to see that the only wise
| plan was to follow the strong bent of her
| cbild's character. She was perhaps little in
| tuenced by the fact that, through Liila's faith
! er, there was an artistic inheritance which
made the name honorable. That is to say,
| many generations back an Ashlintsn had sepa-
rated himself from his race by the distinction
| of being great painter, of whom his nation
was proud. His had been reallove of art,
without anYlof the commercial faint so CON-
mon in the present day. His family wasfrich
| and full of honors he had only painted fer
pure love, His direct descendants had kept
| the riches and the honors-had, in fact great
! ly increased them but they did not, appear to
| have inherited the genius, although they liked
| to keep their name connected with art, and to
| retain, by kind of stately. patronage of it,
some Of the old glory. g. People who are in the
| crush of fashionable life, who have dignities
| and honors to maintain, cannot be expected to
| find time for more than criticism. The Earle
of Ashlinton, having Travelled grea deal and
gone through all the picture-galleries of Eu-
rope, was regarde as great art critic in that
circle in which he was intimately known, and
which had the advantage of being the first
circle in society. His only child. daughter,
who had inherited from an ancestress the pref
ty maine of Lila sometimes, essayed some
| water color sketches, and when she took the
trouble to complete one of these productions
| her friends vowed they were very wonderful
But Lila Asblinton, of Daphne Cottage
| Kensington, scarcely knew that she possessed
any such grand connections, and certainly she
| never thought about them. They were socially
| as far removed from her as if q great gulf had
| been fixed between them. The connection
| which existed was, indeed, SO disr ant as hard
| ly to be one at all. Even Mrs. Ashlinton,
| who was proud of her husbands name, and
essentially proud of the fact that she as we'll
| himself had come of a good family, never
| thought of these greatipeope unless she should
chance to see their names in the Court Circu-
| lar, when she occasionally treated herself to a
Lila Ashintoli was at the p,erilopss age of
| nineteen, when girls of her peculiar style of
beauty are at their prettiest. Her face seemed
made up of roses and lilies she had laughing
blue eyes, and just that indescribable yellow
hair which artists think SO adorable. But she
had never found her good looks any trouble !;
she had yet to find out by bitter experience
the vexation of being too pretty. r.f.r :.
Her life was such a busy one that she GER
tainIy had little time to discover whether she
was pretty or not. When she went through
the streets to the art school she was too full of
thoughts of her work, which to her was no
task, but an enthusiasm, even to notice the
glances of admiration which her bright face
obtained from many passers-by. One fact
will serve to slsw how little she thought of
herself. Every day when she went out she
met certain TALL dark student, and it never
occurred to her that this was more than an odd
coincidence. She knew nothing more of him
than that his name was Harry White, and
that, although he worked in some Of the same
classes as herself, he was a much more adj
vanced artist. But she learned to look for
aud to like his handsome swaIthy face, and to
feel a certain fEiendliness in these meetings,
for his admiration was SO unobtrusiye that it
never troubled her When she went to bed
at night she had no temptation to look into her
glass and see how blue her eyes were; she
was generally SO sleepy that. though shemight
comb out her hair, she would not pause even
to take an artistic pleasure in its color Tn
the morning she WIS up early, but she had
quite enOught to do to'4till all her time until
she went to the art school, Her whole MORN
ing was passed in those stuffy rooms, where
the smell of turpentine and the subdued chat
ter of idle students sometimes became almost
unbearable. But Lila worked on in q way
that would have been wonderful had she not
really loved her work Moreover. she greatly
liked her Professor, who was one of the most
haru- working Aud earnest artists Of elninence
in the present day He had often noticed this
industrious little pupil Of his, whose yellow
hair and pretty name had struck him when
she first entered his classes. He considered
that she really had promise in her, and that
the promise was very likely to be fulfilled, if
her devotion lasted; but he was one of those
teachers who never gave more praise than,a
sin gle word or d single smile; thus, although
many student found him or her self singled
out by this stern Professor with the 1nger of
gscorn, Lila had hevertis cS9eted that sheavas
q faxorite OF a promising pHpil.-Her Profes-
ser was very. strict with he's gave her Tasks
that were>by mo means Deasy,' and sometimes
he talked to her, though only foE a minute or
1.-TWO, as he would have talked toasfe llew- artist
/ rather than to pupil; This gave Lila kind
of conscio pspess that she was getting %; that
she was, indeed not unworthy of thef voca-
ton. .sEoo Hon
Three days in the week Lila staid at the
school until late in tile evening. for on those.
/, three days her Professor looked over all the
classes. In the morning she drew from the
life; in the afternoon she painted from the an
tique; in the evening she copied outline draw
ings. On the other three mornings she copied
oil paintings, generally ,in one, of the public
galleries. This she die, to some extent, under
Professor Pagets directionsAthat is to say, he
told her what to copy, and he would manage.
to see her copy some time Or other during its
production. 1t had never occurred TO herthst.
this was not one Of his duties, and that his ia
king the trouble To- make lvery cutting and
crushing remarks about her copies was sign
of especial favor. After her morning copy
ing she would 60 home and, lock herself into
her little studio, for this was the portion of her
time which Professor Paget had told her'to
keep for the attempting Of something original.
''Turn the canyasses to the wall, he said, ssas
soon as you have done with them don't bring
them to me, for they won't be worth locking
at but don't burn Them They will serve
You AS sMile.stones and unless yotisfeserve
some porsienaafo your time for original effort
YOU suffer from the curse of ipanity which
hangs ever our modern schools you will turn
out p copyist Pc So that Lilla,s days were
quite filled up, and nnlyt late in intervening
did she come into her mothers little sitting
room, made dainty by many cheap If pretty
devices, and by few relics Of prosperous
DAYS. t.rs 5ses =. 4.,saas q ;.
There she would find Mrs. Ashlinton sitting
beside her work basket, perfect picture Of
gentle motherliness. {. She stitched for herself
and for her daughter; she made her dresses
and did the thousand and one little things
which LILA had literally no time to do for her,