Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-06-15

get yOu-trust me for that. Then he
reared himself up, and kissed the little
face that was rich with happy bushes
now; and May was well contentto believe
him. CT shall have you painted by
Millais," he said presently, lying back
and regarding her critically.
"Sha1 youp' She was alight with
pleasure at the way he was assuming the
right to direct her and manage for her in
the future. "Who is Millais? Is he
any one [ ought to know about %
"He's one of the greatest painters
alive" he said with reproving gravity.
81 don't know that I shouldn't put him
at the top of the list of English paint
ers, if it weren't for Leighton's conflict
ing claims. Of course you ought to
know about him, pet; only, how should
you know about anyone while you're
kept cooped up here!" Then he went
on to tell her that Millais had painted
his two sisters, both of whom were great
beauties and celebrated bellies, and both
of whom were married to peers of the
realm. "They were the youngest
brides of their respective seasons" he
added. "Ida was only sixteen"
"Sixteen! my age!' she exclaimed in
establishment.
eyes, by Jove! you are sixteen. But
my sister Ida looked much more of
woman. She had no end of offers; but
my mother knew that st. John would
come on at the end of the season, so she
kept Ida free"
cit was lucky your sister Ida didn't
care for any of the others, she suggested
tinidly.
"She did though. She was an awful
goose about fellow called Bartie Friel;
but he hadn't the needful. The best OF
it is that he's st. Johns cousin, and in
PRODUCED ST. John to Ida. He thought"
the boy paused, and laughed lightly
at the absurdity of it-"that Ida would
win old st. Johns liking, and get him to
give Bartie something good; but Ida
won something more than old st. Johns
liking-she won the title and coronet."
''And his hearth"
ellis heart! I don't know about that;
he's popularity supposed to have lost his
heart thirty years ago to my mother"
"Then he must be quite old? ?" May
questioned in angry surprise. "Tel
me, Lionel, sis he quite old and gray ?"
"Of course he is. He's fifty, and
Ida's eighteen"
"Poor thing!" May calculated with
honest pity.
every few people speak of Lady st.
John as 'poor thing, 1 can tell you,'' he
said, laug Ching. "She's the leader of
about the best coterae in London"
"Poor Mr.. Friel, then," she said,
softly.
The boys face clouded. "Bartle
Friel is" He stopped himself abrupt
ly.
And then she asked with interest, SIS
what 2"
"Never mind; I can't tell you, pet.
Something you ought not to hear
until you are fashionable young lady, :"
he added, half-sneeringly; then he ended
by saying: t'He's not half such a good
fellow as old st. John, after ALL"
They were summoned to luncheon
shortly after this, and May went in
dreamily, her head being full of faint
outlines of the romances in real life, of
which Lionel's sister, Ida, was the hero
inc.
The dining-room of the picturesque
vicarage was as dreary an apartment as
drab furniture and dingy papered walls
could make it. Nature had done great
deal for the room by throwing garlands
of blush roses and French honeysuckle
across the lattice windows; and through
these floral shades the sunbeams fell in
the dancing, graceful way in which sun
beams do play through leaves. But,
alas all beauty and grace came to an end
here. The coarse, crude, time worn,
chlldren-tOrn furniture could not be beau
titled even by the sunbeams. We are so
apt to accuse the mistress of a house of
''want of taste - if her surroundings are
ugly and stiff and soiled. But how can
a woman with an empty purse and full
hands drape windows artistically, and
polish up her household goods perpetu-
ally? Poor Mrs. Baron most certainly
had not solved the difficult problem of
how this was to be done. She had seen
things fade and grow more and more
dilapidated year by year, and she had
made strenuous efforts to repair them.
But repairing is not replacing, and
things had been meagre even at the be-
ginning; so now it was but small wonder
that an air of dull though decent poverty
should reign over everything inside the
house.
1t may be asked: "But with daugh-
tiers who were grown up, should the taste
of identifying, or of attempting to beau
tify, have been left to the already over
worked mother and manager? The
answer is simple enough. The two
elder girls were wearing their way
through the world as governesses. And
Mays education was incomplete, she
being only sixteen. Truth to tell, May
had never troubled her handsome little
head about any of these shortcomings of
her home, before this awakening day.
But now when she sat down to luncheon,
something about tb arrangement of the
table, something about the dinginess of
the room, struck her az being sordid and
utterly inharmonious; utterly out of
keeping with the refinement that sur
rounded Lionel Hastings Like an atmos-
phere.
Her meditations on this subject were
put to fight abruptly. Her father spoke
in aoitated tOnes-tOneS which the moor