Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-06-08

Improvement /, or course, don't deny; and,
in several particulars, sec my way to make
it better. But, substantially, the portrait is
there. I'll tell you what you miss My work
isn't 'classical' in fine, I'm not man of
genius"
mo; | rather suspect you are. But, as
you say, your work isn't classical adhere
is my term brutal. Shall | tell you2 It's
too much of study. You've given poor
Miss Everett the look of II professional
n,odcln
"lf that's the case I've done very wrong
There never was an easier a loss conscious
sitter. It's delightful to look at her"
"Confound it, you've given all her case,
too. Well, don't know what's the matter
give up"
III Think said Baxter, ''you had batter
hold your verdict in allowance until the pict-
IRE is finished The classical element is
there I'm sure; but I've not brought it out
| Wait few days, and it will rise to the sur
! face
J Lennox left the artist alonc and the latter
! took up his brushes and painted hard till
nightfal He laid them down only when it
! was too dark to see, AS he was going out
| LennoX met him in the hall
"Exegi monumantum,n said Baxter; "it1
finished Go and look at your ease III
come tomorrow and hear your Impressions
The master of the house, when the othel
had gone, lit half a dozen lights and re-
turned to the study of the picture. 1t had
| grown prodigiOusly under the painters re-
| cent handling, and whether it was that, as
Baxter had said, the classical element had
! disengaged itself, or that Leunox was in
| more sympathetic mood, it now impressed
him as an original and powerful work.
genuine portrait the deliberate image of
| human face and figure. 1t was Marian il
very truth and Marian most patiently meas
urcd and observed Her beauty was There
her sweetness, and her young loyeliness and
! her aerial grace, imprisoned forever made IN
violable and perpetual. Nothing could be
more simple than the conception and com
position of the picture. The figure sat peace
fully looking slightly to the right with the
head erect and the hands--the virginia. hands,
without rings or hracolcts-lying idle on its
knees The blonde hair was gathered into
little knot of brails on the top of the
head i'm the fashion of the moment.
and left free the almost childish contour
of the ears and cheeks. The eyes were
full of color, contentnent and light: the lips
were family parted. OF color in the picture,
there was in strictness, very littlc but the
/
the flesh spaces of human bushes and pallors,
Of tbrobbng life and health. The work was
strong and simple the figure was thoroughly
void OF afectation and stiffness, and vet
supremacy elegant.
That's what it is to be an artist" thought
Iemox. CAN this has been done in the past
two hoursn
| 1t was his Marian, assuredly. with all that
had charmed him--with all that still charmed
him when he saw her; her appealing conf
dence, her exquisite lightness, her feminine
entertainments. And yet as he looked, an
expression of pain came into his eyes, and
fingered there, and grew into mortal heavi-
ness.
Lennox had been as truly a lover rs a man
| may be; but he loved with the discretion of
fifteen years experience of human affairs
He had a penetrating glance, and he liked to
use it. Many a time when Marian. with elo-
quent lips and eyes had poured out the treas
ures of her nature into his BOSOM and he had
taken them in his hands and covered them
with kisses and passionate vows he had
| dropped them all with sudden shudder and
cried out in silence, "But ah! where is the
heartN One day he had said to her circle
vanity enough, doubtless, Marian, where is
your heart!"
" Il
had said
| Il think of you from morning till night |
put you together and take you apart as peo-
pie do in that game where they make words
out of a parcel of given letters. But there's
always one letter wanting l can't put my
hand on your heart.n
MY heart, john" said Marian, ingen.
iously, "is the whole word. Ny hearts every
where"
| This may have been true enough. Miss
Everett had distributed her heart impartially
throughout her whole organism, so that. as a
natural consequence, its native seat was
somewhat scautily occupied. AS Lennox sat
and looked at Baxter's consummate handi-
work, the same question rose again to his
| lips and if Marian's portrait suggested it.
Marians portrait failed to answer it, 1t took
Marian to do that. 1t seemed to Lennox that
some strangely potent agency had won from
his mistress the confession of her inmost
soul, and had written it there upon the can
vas in firm yet passionate lines Marian's
person was lightness her charm was light
ness; could it DO that her soul was levity tool
| Was she a creature without faith and with
ont conscience What else was the meaning
of that horrible Darkness and deafness that
| quenchcd the light in her eyes and stole away
the smile from her lips. These things We're
the less to be eluded because in many respects
the painter had been profoundly Just He
had been as loyal and sympathetic as he had
been intelligent Not point in the young
girls appearance had been slighted not a
feature but had been forcibly and delicately
rendered. Had Baxter been man of mar
velous msight-an unparalleled observer; or
had he been a mere patient and unflnching
painter, building infinitely better than he
knewi Would not mere painter have been
content to paint Miss Everett in the strong,
rich, objective manner OF which the work
was so good an example, and to do nothing
mores For it was evident that Baxter had
done more. He had painted with something
more than knowledge-with imagination,
with feeling. He had almost composed; and
his composition had embraced the truth.
Lennox was unable to satisfy his doubts. He
would have been glad to believe that there
was no Imagination in the picture but what
his own mind supplied; and that the unsub-
| stantial sweetness on the ewes and Inns of the