The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1883-06-27
MR.. SINGLETON'S MODEL.


"What is it guides my hand, what thoughts
possess me,
That have drawn her face2"
That through the vacant chambers of my
heart
Walk in the silence, as familiar phantoms
Frequent an ancient house, what will ye
with me2"
-LonafelIoto.
When Cissy Denzil came of age (she
was an orphan) she determined that
she would indulge her own caprices to
the fullest extent. She sent for her
aunt, an inoffensive old lady of sixty,
to chaperone her, and rented house in
Bryanston square, not for the sake of
the commanding situation, but because
it was dull neighborhood, respectfully
fashionable and calculated to exercise
a soporific effect on her lively imagina-
tion. The agent declared the house to
be thoroughly well-drained and up
holstered, and, as it happened to please
her, in less than week she was as
much at home there as if she had
lived in town all her life.
Cissy Denzil undoubtedly possessed
dangerous originality. Without
intending it, she was constant thorn
in her aunt's side. No sooner had Miss
Webster recovered from one moral
shower-bath than she received another.
Now, Miss Webster did not like shower
baths they gave her cold and inter-
rupted her in the pursuit of the whole
duty of woman, which was, in her
case, to eat, drink and dress well, to
go to church regularly, and to awaken
Cissy to a sense Of her many short
comings.
But Cissy merrily refused to be
reused. She was not at all over
whelmed by her iniquities. 81 do like
TO see things for myself" she would
say. "What is the use of living If l
am to be always wrapped up in cotton
wool, taken out for an airing, and then
brought back again like those impossi-
BILE dolls which children buy in the
Lowther arcade? How can | live MY
life if do not know what existence
really is. like? Owing to my ignorance
of the world shall make some dread
full mistake, and then it will be all
your fault, aunty. win it not. Mr..
Singleton9"
Mr.. Singleton was an artist who
readily commanded large price for
his pictures. He was an old man, and
had known Cissy Denzil from her
childhood. To him she was wont to
appeal when Miss Webster became
plaintiff. Cissy amused him; he abetted
her vagaries, provided that he saw
they were harmless.
"I did not know that you had such
taste for realism" he replied. "Evi-
IDENTIFY Miss Webster will have bad
time of it, unless we can cure you"
"Poor aunty," said the girl, crossing
the room and kneeling caressingly at
the old lady's feet. 81 am sure that l
shall some day give you fit.
eff you want to get little insight
into what human nature really is"
Nsaid Singleton, jokingly, "come to my
studio any morning and study the
models. Put on plain dress and bon
net, and get there early. Ten o'clock
will be soon enough. You can easily
reach Holland Park road from here. If
you will come, I'll have some of the
litter cleared away, and you can watch
me paint, sit, or do what you like. /
often see twenty or Thirty models in a
day. Patient Griselda, Cardinal VOL
sew, Fair Rosamond, Lucrezia Borgia
and other we'll known characters come
to me by the dozen. If l don't want
them, they try the next studio. Artists
are clustered as thickly together up
there as lawyers are in Bedford row
That bareheaded, disguised - very
much disguised, sometimes--a man
with history-French nobleman who
sold papers in the strand was a fre
quent sitter of mine; he's dead now
poor fellow"
"I am to sit on the usual terms D
asked Cissy. "What are the usual
;erms, Mr.. SingletonY'