Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-02-25
A LITTLE ESTHETE.
BY HARRIET PRESCOTT sPOFFORD.

III you thought you had her here mp she sprang
like jack-in-the-box there, and you never
knew what to expect from one with a point of
view differing from that of almest all around
her. There was. to be sure one thing Won had
a right to expect, and only one. and that was
always and everywhere of late certain and COM
plete disapprObation of ROsalie's proceedings
Rosalie she had been christened, but she had
taken to spelling 1t ''ROsalys'' at the time she
learned the kensingtOn stitch. subscribed to
Punch for the simple purpose Of cutting her
gowns, since no dressmaker could do II.
on the models of those OF Mr. Du Maurier's ladies
there, and dug up all her sweet-briars and
lemon-verbenas for the sake of planting whole
beds OF sunflowers. Il. can't understand what
il means" she mOaned. ~ had my seed from
the Agricultural bureau in Washington, and |
planted pound of them, and there have only
two come up. / do believe do believe"
And she looked at Joe as if what she believed
was that ne pulled them up as fast as they
sprouted-
Don't look at me. Rosa" said Cousin Joe:
'lOOk at the birds" And while they are watch
ing saucy robin tug at the stem of one of the
ssprlnging plants that he might get the seed at
its root, will tell you that Joe wasn't her
cousin really: never allow any of my heroes
and herOines to be cousins: they were step
cousins. so to say. and by no means of any
blood relation; but that had never hindered the
warmeSt sort of intimacy till ROsalys began to
spell her name in old text. and declare she could
see no absurdity in the young esthetes declara-
ton that he dined off a lily. that it merely
meant the satisfying sense OF beauty i'm which
the banqueting of the soul dulled the hunger of
the body. and that Mr.. Rivas said the sense of
color was something quite as actual as the
sense tnat enjoys chop. and so maunder on till
Aunt Eunice put her fingers in her ears, and
told BOsalys if she didn't become quiet she
should have to shake her. Upon which Rosalys
would walk off singing to herself from Oscar
Wilde
"Her gold hair fell on the wall of gold
Like the delicate gOssamer tangles spun
On the FURNISHED disk OF the marigod
Or the suniower turning to meet the sun
When the gloom Of the Jealous night Is DONE
And The spear OF the lily is aureolei."
81 am worried about her" cried Aunt Eunice.
lis she really becoming an IDIOT"
Not she. Aunt Euncel' said joe laughing.
III takes world OF sense to make that sort of
idiOcy."
well, she doesn't do a useful thing any
longer, and she used to be invaluable 1t is all
along ofthat painting fellow Rivas. Ever since
he and his moOn-struck sister there came back
she has been bewitched. I'll give him piece
pleasant prospect impaired comfort to Aunt
Eunice.
''DO you really mean to go over to the enemy,
Rosa?" said Joe, overtaking the pretty mink
with his long stride presently. Have you
taken out your naturalization papers in the
fleshly school? And do you find pleasure in the
Thought OF slipping over our own graves as two
snakes, or creeping through hot jungles as two
tigers! What is the verse you read so often
"'HOw my heart leaps up
To think of that grand living after death
In beast and bird and hOwer'!"
81 mean to do Just as / please. Joe, and to
let you do the same was the tart reply
:" Indeed you do not; for if you did should
take you so far away from all this nonsense that
you wouldn't know you were on the same
planet" But Rosa had gone without any
more words, and left him watching her down
the garden aisle, with her scant blue robes
cllnglng about her pretty feet, and her scarf
catching on every thorn. to where young Riyas
sat sketchng on the old stone wall at the gar
den foot, wearing his bicycle dress, whose knee
oreeciles and jacket were perhaps something as
near the Old FlOrentine as he dared to approach
IN these parallels. Joe could not but ac-
KNOWLEDGE that the dark young artist. 1.-the
ana slender. and the sylph hurrying under the
hair streaming round her and away in the wind.
made a pleasant picture. Yet it vexed him that
1t should be made by his Rosa who six months
ago had been all but his wife. planning
their house and home with him. choosing their
chairs and sofas, ''till bedeyiled BY this
medieval idiot and his sister," growled
Joe. Then spasm of humility seized
MIN, and he didn't wonder she pre-
ferred the Italian beauty of the youth to his own
giant stature and Saxon tints, the novelty of the
it had occurred to him that he might counteract
a portion OF the bedeyilment by seeing if there
were anything In this sad sister GLADYS; yet on
the whole, he was too hurt and angry and dis
gusted TO try. and he rubbed his short yellow
curlS. and flashed his great gray ewes at them
and strobe away gnawing his moustache. after
one dismal glimpse of Rosa catching up the
clinging skirts round those pretty ankles of hers
to dance down the path more trippingly. and
waving her scarf with her arm, the scarf whose
cunning disposition was the nearest that she in
turn, dared approach to angel sleeves
Joe knew that the girl in the long sulphur-
colored gown opening over olive green velvet.
reading book as she walked with dOwncast
head and face, was Gladys. and he knew lust
why she walked there. and that at this moment
MS great figure cast a shadow at her feet but he
would none OF her, and went back for a little
SOlace to Aunt Eunce
- saw you said the good but contrary and
oid-fashioned soul, g from the window And /
saw that DEMONSTRATING girl making eyes at YOU
She looks like the lady i'm the lobster Bnt
don't you be troubled, Joe. Only have patience.
and it will all come right Rosa isn't really a
fool yet. You go right ON furnishing your
house as If nothing had been said or done"
II don't know that l want to-" said Joe.
gloOmily.
Don't know that you want to ?r cried Amt
Eunice Then there is really more mischief
done than l feared. Don't know that Won want
to9 Joe, if you don't want to- III sue you for
breach OF promise myself"
1t was long summer to poor joe who had
expected by this to be revealing in an ideal world
OF happiness with charming wife at Niagara in
June. at Newport in July, at the Crawford Notch
IN August, and in September settling in their
home In the Boston suburbs, the home that was
10 De nothing but a nest of love and music and
Joy and goodness And here was Rosa never
letting him mention the subject, planting her
sunfowers over, aud rescung but two of them
from the birds again. going about with her
little thumb through a palette patched in
dullest c0lOrs of old gold and dirty green or
spending hours over her easel where an ethereal
pot of impossible lilies was trying to put
on.or of-semblance of reality, drapng
Old ironing blankets at her windows. and talk,
ing OF the ineffable dream of dead light
blooming in the slumber of their tawny folds
uttering further ianfaronade of spiritual idyIlic
ana realistic whms. and living in any world but
ms world. 1t was altogether too much for poor
Cousin joe He could endure the hatefuiness
OF II all no longer; Rosa in all sorts of gowns
but her wedding gown in all sorts of pOstures
but her old one of his worshipper; Rosa with a
wall OF separation growing up between herself
ana MN: Rosa rapt in the contemplation Of van
itieS anu Tie admiration of this little painting
chap, VINO vas so rapt in the same admiration
that ne did not need hers-it was all detes,..be
nightmare FROM which it was tine TO wake
an experience that it was best to b.. done with
u n = In ell