Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-08-02

1
my grasp, she would have been lost in
the current of humanity surging past
| caught her hand, SO thin and cold, and
| mplored her TO let me shield her. "Vista,
| have loved you always. Come, be my
wife-ny queen-my goddess. We will
return to the old home; We will forget the
past; only follow me now"
"a weary, deathlike look stole over her
face. God bless you Alex, for all you ask
barrier is between Us. Pity me. but
| leave me-"
"There is but one barrier that has pow
er to separate Us, Vista. God forbid that
| you are in a haunt of vice as well as one
of poverty
great crimson wave surged over her
face and her eyes flashed like those of
an enraged tigress. Drawing back, with
the hauteur Of queen, she almost Kissed
| the words: "Alex Huntley, do you for
get that am the daughter of the Ashleys
and Carolinian? l have not forgotten
it, although I starve and suffer! I will
never forget my name and the home of
ny father! will die in yon river first
| remember that! Farewell! Do not seek
me-
And gathering her threadbare shawl
about her, she passed up flight of stairs
into a tenement house. It was my i'm
pulse TO follow her, but I dare not. The
next day l returned to the house deter
mined to persuade her to accept my as
sis6ance. Imagine my anguish when I
was told by an inmate of the same house
that at dawn of day Vista had some, no
one knew where. I returned to the duties
Of my life with a stone where my heart
had been. I inst nctIvely felt that Vista
had gone beyond my heIp-h8d gone to
find relief in death.
"Two years passed. 1 cherished only
sad, sweet memory of the woman 1 loved
without one flicker of hope. One eve
uing strolled alone into the academy of
design loan exhibition of paintings. A
large crowd was gathered around a can
vas, and ordinations of admiration were
heard. Later IN the evening I pressed
my way to the picture. There before me
was a perfect likeness of Vista Ashley
just as I had seen her last, when in the
full blush of her womanly magnifcence.
She represented the tarry-eyed Egyptian
queen, Cleopatra. GeorgeoGsIy beautiful
she was reclining beneath a canopy of
crimson and gold. The perfect contour
of her figure was enveloped in g cloud of
rose tissue, and the pillows of dusky
hair partly bound in clusters of jewels.
At her breast she held the asp with ven
omeG tooth. 1 dazed, transfixed, the
blood seemed to leap through my veins.
Looking at me with half smiling mouth
and dark, lang u1d eyes was Vista Ashley,
and yet when 1 put out my arms to her
touched but a painted shadow on a piece
of canvass. l was speechless, motionless.
[ knew not how long l stood, uutl the
janitor informed me that he was closing
the doors and extinguishing the lights.
Before leaving the place, however, [ OBJ |
tanned the address of the artist who had |
painted the picture. The following day
I visited the studio OF Rossi for he it was |
who painted it. He Was pleased and will |
ing to give ne all the information he |
possessed regarding his lovely model.
He told me how he had found her in alb |
ject poverty; that though clothed in |
threadbare garments, he recognized the |
perfect figure and the soft, tender. |
southern beauty of the face; and how he !
pursuadeG her to become his model, and |
that to her he owed his reputation, while
to him she owed her life OF ease and |
luxury. It was through one OF his pic |
lures of her that she had won her hus- |
band of rank and fortune, who worship !
ed her. He had seen her face painted In
cloud Of azure and sunlight. Immedi- |
ately he bought to it and Idoliz9d the |
image in vague, poetic way until by |
chance he met IN h1s studio the original. |
The result was speedy marriage.
81 saw her some time afterward in pri-
vate. I caught her jewelled hand and |
exclaimed Vista why did you Lot come
to me when 1 found your"
"'Alex, said she, I longed to heed your
intreaties and follow you, but the bar
riers between US was man of infamY who
took me from my house and basely de-
serted me. He was then alive, and he
was my husband
care you happy, Vista?' asked.
''She looked up into my face, and the
lustre of ner eyes were dim as she said:
ALEX, happiness is like the flowers of the
aloes; it bloom but once. Love and
happiness blooms but once. Love aud |
happiness bloomed for me under the
shade of the magnoIias and the orange
but never since"