The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1882-10-26
LINDA,S LEGACY.


thich sometimes exist between the old
md the young, and which seem to shake
be theory of natural Inheritance. For
I'D Mr.. Walters was much more like
Linda's father--or grandfather, for the
Ter of that-than was her own legiti-
nate progenitor, and the love between
&he two would have afforded a capital
Meme for discourse on the power of
Elective affinity. Both were artists; old
Mr. Walters being master in the craft
Whereof Linda was but a humble begin
ner; and part of the tie between them was
HE old mans desire to see his favorite's
Professional improvement, and the conse
Huent lessons which he gave her on the
management of lier colors and the laws
II perspective. 1t was thus a double
bnd-master and pupil, father and
laughter; and on either side it was
bually strong.
III will always be your friend, little
linda, Mr.. Walters used to say. "When
die you shall find have not forgotten
ou. have not much to leave, but you
hall come in for your share with the
est.'
But whenever he spoke like this,
linda would begin to cry, and protest
hat she wanted nothing with his prop
rty, and did not care to be remembered
b his will. "Only say" she used to sob,
that I have been good, obedient
laughter to you. and that l never made
Eou angry"
For Mr.. Walters was peppery tenn
bered old gentleman, and had the knack
~ quarreling with his best friends for a
prd or look. He was the Boanerges
III his society, and his thunder was for
midable. But Linda had somehow
learned the secret of keeping the peace
with him; and never since their first &C.
&quaintance had there been a cross word
3between them.
Things went on comfortably enough
for some years, when, one summer
Linda being away nursing sick sister
\ it is to be supposed the heat mounted to
4 the old masters brain, for he broke out
| like tornado against a certain Mrs.
Law. and the quarrel became SO embit
tered, and the old man put himself so
much in the wrong by his passion and
violence, that he was forced to leave
Fairfield and go over to Tours, where his
| family and certain of his friends lived.
For he had q wife and children all this
time; only for sundry reasons which may
we'll be imagined and need not be partic-
ularized, he and they found it more
agreeable to have the sea between them
| than to live under one roof. Now, how
lever, when his own home had tumbled
about his ears, he was forced to rub
shoulders with theirs. And so it came to
pass that, Linda still being held by her
/ duty to her sick sister these two dear
friends never met again, and only letters
: adieu took the place of the daughterly
devotion and fatherly protection which
| had been the rule of life between them.
At Tours lived certain obscure, but
Ambitious, and, for the matter of that,
eccentric, painter called Maze. This
worthy had ideas, truly, but he ex-
pressed them in such hideous colors and
with such extraordinary contortions of
lines and limbs, that very few could I'M
derstand what his pictures meant when
they were done. He called them one
thing, but they might as we'll have been
another anything, in fact, You like to
say-without much loss to sense or
probability. They did not sell; but
Maze always asserted that one day they
would, and even now other men bor-
rowed from them.
Maze and Mr.. Walters were not what
the world call friends. In spite of the
old masters temper, he had the power of
attaching people to his service, while all
painters OF note or aspiration clustered
round him like devotees round a shrine.
His talk was full of valuable informa-
ton OF his art, and his professional
criticisms we're of so much account, that
to be able to say-"Walters told me to
do walters praised that"-was
Of itself as good as diploma OF merit
And Maze was q man who, OF all others,
knew his best mental feeding-grounds,
AID how to spread his own hay in the
sGnshine OF another's intellect.
Among the few things of value which
Mr.. Walters had to leave, were certain
rare old bits of plate which he had
picked up at curiosity shops and the
like. He was fond of goldsmith's
work, and he prided himself on his
Judgment perhaps little more than it
deserved. To hear him. he has as many
cups and vases by Cellini as all the rest
of the world taken together; and he
even insisted on Michael Angeles"
when the work was specially coarse-he
called it broad-and asserted, without
fear of contradiction. that he could see
the great masters touch here on this
silver flagon as we'll as on the Moses" or
the ssPieta." All the same, the collec
ton was valuable one; and who was to
have the reversion was matter Of
---.-~. ..>oor1axs,,, asnouu the frionds