The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1883-05-05


back to the unknown child that had
smiled down on him so long ago.
1 The ideal head became his great
source Of enjoyment, sand ,adreamy soft
ness shaded bis tlark-grey eyes. AS line
by line and tint by tint took him back
into the past, which, all 1ifeless as it
Twas, seemed to him, in those moments.
more real than the busy present. Yet
now, in reviewing that one bright vision
of his memory, it was not so much the
lovely child that he saw in fancy as the
beautiful girl whose face, with fuller
depth and sweetness, looked out at him
I from his own canvas.
Instinctively, he hardly knew why,
he disliked to work on this picture in
it only his hours of solitude. SO it hap
pened that it was nearly finished when
by some chance a friend discovered him
bending over it, too absorbed to hear
any approach. As the door opened
Carradine rose hastily, turning his easel
to the wall, so as to conceal the face
upon it. This little stratagem, how
ever, was destined to be of no avail.
Having been marked by the intruder,
one of those cordial, well-meaning peo-
pie, good-natured to degree, but with
little delicacy of perception-the action
at once aroused his curiosity.
"Aha. master painter" he said, with
a laugh, "let US see what it is that
you work at by yourself till it steals
away your eyes and ears. Only one
peepr'
With that, he laid his hand on the
frame, and receiving no forbidding
word from Carradine, turned it around.
The next moment he was loud in
praise.
"But who is it, Carradine? If it is a
portrait, tell me where to find the orig
inal, and will, if it is seven days
journeyr'
Carradine smiled.
eff l myself knew where to find such
an original should not be here to tell
you, my good friend" he answered,
evasivefy.
"Oh, fancy SKETCH said the 9TH
er, misled, as the artist had desired
81 might have saved myself the trou-
BILE of asking. No real flesh and blood
face ever looked like that-more shame
to nature, say. Of course you will ex-
hibit it, Carradinep"
"No!' answered the painter, quietly.
"No!' repeated the other, in sur
prise, "But, my dear fellow, you must,
or | shall betray your secret, and you
will have a swarm of visitors, worse
than plague in Egypt, let in upon
you"
Carradine hesitated. A chance word
in his friends speech had suggested a
possibility that made his heart leap in
Spita Of Soher reason
"You are right" he said. 81 shall
send the picture for exhibition. 1t will
be better So"
After his visitor had left him alone
again, Carradine bent low over his cas-
ell, gazing into the lovely, upturned face,
until it began to fade into the gathering
twilight.
"It-itm he murmured to himself,
half unconsciously. "But it can not be.
Yet will send it-and perhaps"
And so the picture was sent, in due
time; and it seemed almost as if Cara
dimes soul had gone with it and drawn
him to follow. Hour after hour, and
day after day, he sat in the gallery
scrutinizing eagerly every face amid
the visitors whom taste or fashion had
brought to look at the now celebrated
artists latest success. Every night he
went away unsatisfied, and every morn
ing he returned with hope springing
afresh in his heart.
Still, the object of his search, what
ever it may have been, does not appear;
and one day, discouraged at last, he re-
solved to 90 no more on so fruitless an
errand. Shutting himself in his studio,
he began to paint, but, strive as he
would, he could command neither hand
nor fancy. Finally, tired of repeated
failure, he abandoned work, and yield
ed to an impulse which drew his steps
in the customary direction.
When he entered the small side room
in which his picture hung he found
but two persons within, young man
and girl.
Carradine could not see the faces OF
these two, but, with an earnestness for
which he was at loss to account, he
followed their retreating figures as they
moved slowly toward his picture. But
the next moment an exclamation of as
constituent burst from the lips of the
young man.
"Why, here is your portrait, Leilial
What does it meanP Who can the
painter bep"
With that he hurried out to purchase
a catalogue. Carradine advanced quick
ly to the girl.
Il am the painter" he said.
She turned and looked at him with
one steady gaze from those glorious eyes
that had haunted his visions for so many
years. Then she spoke:
"You painted that pictureP and
howP"
"From remembrance" he answered.