Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1888-10-24

expense, compared with her small income.
She was soon obliged to draw on her saw
ings bank deposit, and that had always
been kept in a consumptive state by the
needs of her girl cousin. At first she
thought of getting W q subscription for
her painter, or OF interesting some rich
school committeeman in his behalf; but
very shortly she took such a fancy to him
that she did not want any one else to earn
O claim to his gratitude; and so she went
on paying out her savings for his necessi-
ties. When winter arrived and fuel must
be had, she bought it for him, although
he tried to do without. Next came an
oyercoat and a pair of mittens and some
heavy underclothing, because she could
with a red nose and fingers. It was in
vain for him to refuse; she absolutely
forced him to take.
Meantime small profits from his brush.
The picture which she had thought per-
feet really had but FIVE or six days work
upon it, and needed q month more. And
when it was done it brought only SOS. It
was of no use for her to scold the picture
dealer for his sharpness, and to endeavor
to move his pity by telling him the tale
Of the Germans poverty. The man of
art replied that it was not q known name;
that paintings sold in the American
market mainly by force of reputation;
that he had his own living to make, and
that she might take the money or leaveit
If he can do q figure picture, and do 1t
first rate" said this rational monster, 81
can be more liberal with him. There are
80 many landscapes! Every American
artist can make landscapes"
On this hint Ernst commenced a figure
picture. 1t was his forte; he had simply
tried q landscape because he had judged
that to be the favorite genre in America;
he had known that he could not hope to
excel in it. A beautiful group was soon
sketched, representing q scene from King
| Philips war, the interior Of a cabin,
| lighted by it's own flames, q beautiful girl
in the grasp Of Wampanoag warriors, .
father and brother struggling manfully
against her captors, and in the near back.
ground, family seen through the shat
| tered door, a coming relief of Puritan
riders. Janet Holcum, the patriotic New
Highlander, was delighted with what she
thought already a perfect success. and
wanted to sell the group as 1t was.
"No," judged Ernst. g cannot avvord
to waste Wrist impressions. This Is the
most divvicult bart Of the painting,
though the quickest. But 1t will need q
long time tomake it goot enough. 1t will
need all winter" he concluded, with a
piteously a~pologetical glance at Janet.
go on" she said, flushing with the
noble heart beat of self sacrifice as she
caught sight Of this mute appeal. "This
| time l know you will triumph. W. can
live till 1t is DONE"
Heaven pless you" he replied, taking
her hand and kissing it by force. "You
are the noplest woman upon the earth.
The kiss and the praise brought a deeper
blush than one often sees on such a pale,
sallow face as that of Janet. For we must
come now to q weighty secret; we must
make an avowal which Is almost tragic.
Not content with lowering this poor
stranger with her worldly wealth, Janet
had already begun to give him the treas
ures which she had received direct from
heaven. All the love which lies hidden
In the heart of a good and pure old maid,
all the vast abyss of sensibility which ex-
lists in q feminine nature that has
found no natural outlet, had In her
case been stirred to the ~profoundest
depths by the penniless, friendless,
handsome, clever youth whom she had
saved from death Useless to struggle
against the ~infatuation; it had COM
menced too i~nsidiously, as mere human
ity; then it had crept on too slyly, In the
guise of mere charity. Oh, how cunning
It had been! All at once there was a
flaming transformation, and she found
| herself the victim of a first passion, as
much in love asif she were a young girl.
Resist? She tried in vain to do so.
Run away? She could not give up her po-
| sition, lest she should thereby fail to
complete her cousins education, and leave
him to starve. Once more, self sacrifice;
though all her life had been a self sacri-
fee, she must go on with it.; she must
love and suffer and be silent. And so the
mischief proceeded at a terrible rate, for
every day added to it's magnitude. What
made things worse was that Ernst was
nobly conscious of his obligations, and
profuse in thanks, in praises, in the most
delicate and charming attentions. If he
met her on the street he took his hat en-.
tirely off his comedy head and saluted her
as school ma'ams are not always saluted.
If he walked with her he had the air of
escorting a duchess. he would leave his
beautiful labor at any moment to greet
her return to the house with a smile or
to run on her errands. His whole deport-
ment toward her was q continual burning
Of incense.
She had never before known such a fin.
ished gentleman; more than that, she had
never met q sweeter and finer nature.
She comprehended at last that ever his
attempted suicide was a proof Of his high
self respect and sense Of honor, inasmuch
as it was an effort to escape from the
degradation of living by mourning debts
which he could not discharge. That stoi-
cal declaration, IF I could hat bald my
room rent l would hat gone on another
month" seemed to her now something
like a patent of nobility. Unaware
of her own grandeur Of character,
she worshlped his grandeur Of character.
Finally, she worshiped his genius, which
had begun to show her the universe Of
glory that there is In art, and which was
able to seize ideas scarcely perceptible to
her Impractical aesthetic vision, and place
them before her in the resurrection robes
of drawing and color.
All WE'LL she was desperately in love
with him, and she could not help admit
ting it to her accusing conscience, and
could not put aside the scornful finger Of
her sense of womanly shame. But did he
know it? AS yet she was sufficiently her.
self to hope that he did not. Although
she could not meet him without feeling q
blush run through her whole face, al
though bis praises and the touch Of his
hand made her tremble from head to foot,
she trusted that she was keeping her fiery
secret. And so she was: q young man
does not easily suspect that a woman thir.
teen years his senior has q passion for
him; and if Ernst noticed her tremors
and changes of color, he imputed them to
woman delicacy and Puritan shyness.
While Janet, locked in her own room, was
looking in the glass at her pale face. high
cheek bones. square jaws, straight mouth,
and inciBient wrinkles, while she was
wishing with both tears and shame that
all that supportable %plainness were beauty
and youth, he, steadily at work, did not
think of her at all, or only thought of her
as his "goot vriend.' His handsome
as well as classic In outline, was not shad-
owed by the slightest cloud from the fires
of love, unless indeed he remembered now
and then his lost jungfrau in faderland.
About the time that 1.-THE Rescue" las
Janet christened the scene from Philips
wary reached its finishing point. Ernst
encountered an American artist named
Stanley. Stanley was q portrait painter
in high fashion, who made $4,000 a year
and spent it all on himself and some poor
relations. Too generous and soft hearted
l., GAIA nn,n Ia u,nntad to ctn6u in Tho