Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-02-06
MISS BRETHDRTON|
By MRS. HUMPHREY WARD,

0y MhS. dUMfHh1Y NAhU, in 1t at once all his knowledge and all his dreams. In front sat Jonah under bis golden tinted gourd-an ill tempered Flemish behind him the indented roofs of the Flemish town climbed the whole height of the background. It was probably the artists native town; some roof among those carefully outlined gables sheltered his own household Lares. But the hill on which the town stood and the mountainous back ground and the purple sea, were the hills and the sea not of Belgium, but of dream coun- try of Italy, perhaps, the medieval artists paradise
 "IIappy man!n said Forbes, turning to Miss Eretherton; Hook, he put it together four centuries ago, all he knew and all he dreamed of. And there it is to this day, and beyond the spirit of that window there is no getting. For all our work, if we do it honestly, is compound of what we know and what we dream"
 Miss Bretherton looked at him curiously. It was as though for the first time she con- nected the man himself with his reputation and his pictures, that the great artist in him was more than name to her. She listened to him synpatherically, and looked at the window closely, as though trying to follow all he had been saying. But it struck Mrs Stuart that there was often a bewilderment in her manner which had been strange to it on her first entrance into London. Those strong emphatic ways Kendall had first mo- ticed in her were less frequent. Sometimes she struck Mrs Stuart as having the air of a half blindfold person trying to find her way along strange roads. They passed out into the cool and darkness of the cloisters, and through the new build ings, and soon they were ill the Broad Walk, trees as old as the commonwealth bending overhead, and in front the dazzling green of the June meadows, the shining river in the distance, and the sweep of cloud hecked blue arching in the whole.
 The gentlemen were waiting for them, metamorphosed in boating clothes, and the two boats were ready. A knot of idlers and lockers on watched the authorization, for on Sunday the river is forsaken, and they were the only adventurers on its blue expanse. Of they pushed, Miss Bretherton, Kendak MT. Stuart and Forbes in one boat, the remaining members of the party in the other. Isabel Bretherton had thrown of the wrap which she always carried with her, and which she had gathered round her ill the cathedral, and it lay about her in green fur-edged folds, bringing her white dress into relief, the shapely fall of the shoulders and all the
 
 the stroke oar, after he had arranged every thing for her comfort, he asked her it Oxford was what she had expected.
 "A thousand times better," she said eagerly.
 "You have wonderful power of enjoy ment. One would think your London life would have spoiled it @ little"
 "I don't think anything ever could. l was always laughed at for it child. l enjoy everything"
 Including such day as you had yester deya How can you play the White Lady twice in one days It's enough to wear you out"
 "Oh, everybody does it. I was bound te give 0 matinee to the profession, some time and yesterday had been fixed for it for ages But I have only given three matinees alto gether, and I shan't give another before my time Is up."
 ''That's good hearing" said Kendall. "Dt you get tired of the White Ladyp" "Yes,n she said emphatically; II am sicl of her. But" she added, bending forware with her hands clasped on her knee, so tha | what she said could be heard by Kenda only, ''have you heard, l wonder, what | have in my head for the autumn Oh, well we must not talk of it now; have no righ to make it public yet. But I should like t tell you when we get to Nuneham, if there an opportunity"
 eve will make one," said Kendall, with al inward qualm. And she fell back again wit nod and smile.
 On they passed, in the blazing sunshine through If1ey lock and under the green hi crowned with If1ey village and its Norma church. The hay was out ill the fields, an the air was full of it. Children in tidy Sur l o11 to1v ', fo 1rr at them; reflected heaven smiled upon thel from the river depths; wild rose bushes ovel hung the water, and here and there stra poplars rose like landmarks into tho sky. Th heat, after a time, deadened conversation Forbes every now and then would break oJ with some comment on the moving lant scape, which showed the delicacy and trut l of his painters sense, or set the boat ally with laughter by some story of the unr generate Oxford Of his own undergradua days; but there were long stretches of silent when, except to the rowers, the world scene asleep, and the regular fall of the oars Til the pulsing of a hot dream.
 It was past before they st eered into u shadow of the Nuneham woods. The mea ows just ahead were golden blaze of ligh but here the shade lay deep and green on u still water, spanned by rustic bridge, ar
 broken every now and then by the state whiteness of the swans. Rich steeply risiI
 woods shut in the left hand bank, and foliag
 grass and wild flowers seemed suddenly
 have sprung into a fuller luxuriance thu | elsewhere. r-- Its too early for tea" said Mrs. Stuar
 clear little voice on the bank; tat least if v have it directly, 1t will leave such lol
 time before tho train starts. Wouldn't
 stroll be pleasant frst?"
 Isabel Bretherton and Kendall only wait . for the general assent before they wander,
 of ahead of the others. "I should like ve
 much to have a word with you," she had sa
 to him as he handed her out of the boat. A,
 now here they were, and, as Kendall felt, t ' critical moment was come.
 "I only wanted to tell you," she said,
 they paused in the heart of the wood, a lit
 out of breath after a bit of steep ascent, ''th
 I have got hold of play for next Octoh
 that I think you are rather specially int
 ested mat least, Mir. Wallace told me y
 had heard it all, and given him advice abe
 1t while he was writing 1t. l want 50 mu ,, to hear your ideas about it. It always seel | A