Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1882-10-19

he was a physician.
Tom had noticed the young lady
more particularly than had, and dis
played an absurd anxiety to see her
again. He stood at tie window morn
ings and evenings for week, and was
rewarded by a glimpse Of her once or
twice, and was really astonished to
hear him gush about her appearance,
for he had never paid any attention to
the half dozen other girls on the block
who admired him. I was serenely un-
concerned myself, for to tell the truth
Ihad begun long before to take an in
terest in Toms sister, who was just
budding into womanhood. I remon-
strated when Tom got to neglecting
his picture to stand at the window and
gaze across the street.
There are half dozen other girls
on the block, Tom, and, as far as can
judge, much prettier than this one.
Besides, she is the daughter of physi-
clan, and doubt whether she would
care to make the acquaintance of a
mere mechanic.
/ was mistaken in my estimate, how
ever, for the doctor was really plain
man of good common sense and
model upon which his family shaped
their ways. Tom embraced the first
opportunity to get acquainted with
AMMO Thornborough, and Hugh and I,
who were usually the leaders, were only
tail to Toms kite in this instance, and
trailed along after him and felt little
Insignificant when he introduced us
two or three days after he had formed
her acquaintance. There was nothing
particularly attractive about Miss
Thornborough to me. She had large
gray eyes-soulful. remember Tom
called them; a large mouth, rather ten
der and winning ! admitted, when
Tom suggested the idea; brown hair,
that Tom declared had a golden tint
though there rebelled and declared
that I thought it decidedly reddish,
much to his disgust and form which
| pronounced pretty, without any
prompting from Tom. She was alady-
like, very pleasant and rather quiet
girl, but I really never thought her
worthy of comparison with little Mel
lie Galway-still 1 admit a prejudice. I
actually believe Tom hated his trade
from the day he became acquainted
with Annie, for he had very exalted
opinion of her, and when he grew
to love her, as he soon did,
he thought her altogether too
good for mechanics wife.
You and 1 can afford to moralize
upon mechanics worth, but really
expect we would have been much like
Tom. 1t was rather sudden attach
ment on his part, but think he had
good appreciation Of her worth and
admired her character before he loved
her which is frequently not the case,
you know.
The immediate result Of the matter
was that Tom kept us awake nights
till IL o'clock and often later talking
about his future and praising Annie
for we had no secrets from each other
then-while mountain, river,
bridge, several trees and number of
soldiers gradually put in an appear
ance on the canvas stretched across
our largest room, which he called his
studio. Toms ideas were rather grand,
and don't think he ever worked on
a canvas less than six by ten, and his
pieces were all historical. The longer
he knew Annie Thornborough the
more absorbed he became in that pic
ture, and he went less and less fre-
quently across the way, for his visions
of the future compared so unfavorably
with the actual present that he grew
to think that somehow she would be
contaminated by association with a
plodding workingman, when she
was to be the wife of a
famous artist. / don't think he ever
doubted that she would marry him,
and / am inclined to think she had
given him some Encouragement, for /
can scarcely conceive such sublime
egotism of him as must have been the
case otherwise. "It is astonishing to
me that have so long remained a me-
chanic," he would say, when was
all the time possessed of the divine
afflatus, but I suppose it required some
grand object to develop it,
I would have been little amused at
this, but that I saw he was terribly in
earnest, and also that the picture was
certainly developing into something
far above anything he had ever at
tempted before. Hugh O'Nein went
away shortly after the beginning of all
this, to take lessons under Grierson,
and, I am satisfied, looked upon Toms
love affair as little harmless by-play
and expected the picture to go the way
all the rest Of them had gone. On
one Of his visits home, when Tom was
away decorating the exterior Of some
body's walls, surprised Hugh staId-
ing before the picture with paint
brush in his hand. He looked around
as I entered, with mischieyous