Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-05-11
CHAPTER TX

Her stranger from Rubes' land was great
man In u certain world He had become
great when young, which Is perhaps mis-
fortune. 1t indisposes men to be great at
their maturity. He was famous at 20, by a
picture hectic i'm color, perfect In drawing.
that made Paris at his feet He became moro
famous by verses. by plays by political fol-
lies and by social successes He was faith
full however, to his first love I'm art He was
great painter. and year by year proved
ofresh the cunning Of bis hand Purists said
his pictures had no soul in them It was not
wonderful IL they had none. He always
painted soulless vice; indeed, he saw very
little else
One year he had some political trouble He
wrote witty pamphlet that hurt where IL
was perilous to aim. He laughed and
crossed the border, riding into tho green Ar
dennes one sunny evening. He had name
OF some power and sufficient wealth. he did
not fear long exile Meanwhile he told nim
self he would go and look at Schefler's
Gretchen
The King of Thule Is better, but people
talk most of the Gretchen. He had never
seen either.
Ho went in lesurely, travelling up the
bright Meuse river and across the nouotony
OF che plains, then green with wheat a foot
high, and musical with the many bells of tho
Easter kermesses in the quaint old world VII
iages
ihere was something SC novel, so sleepy, SO
harmless SO medipyal in the Flemish III,
that 1t soothed him. Hc had boon swimming
all his life In salt sea fed rapids; this sluggish
dull canal water, mirroring between its
rushes a life that had scarcely changed 70,
centuries, had charm for him
is ugly and beautiful; It Is ike dan Quaint
gres do Flandre lug, that has precious stones
set inside Its rim. IL is a burger lodccr of
bales and barrels of sale and harter nf ,os.
and gain but In the heart of It there are II.
Illuminated leaves of missal yellum. all gold
and color. and monkish story md heroic
ballad that could o,Iy b,ya boon oxo,,,,oa
in tho aays when art WINS n RELIGION
He cuzed himself iptonn homooe Of Rubcps
whom before he had sighted never bovipg
known dor. unless Won have scen Antwerp 4
is as absurd to sa that Won have soon Rub,ns
as it is to think that Won bayo seen MuriIlo
out of Seville. or RafFoeIIe out of Romo, ond
he studied the Gretchen carefully deIic,tolv
sympathetically. for h, loved SchctFer. Int
though he tried. be failed 10 care for ber
"She Is only a peasant. sbo l. NOT i, ,,oo,,
he said to himself; ~ will paint a q Grctchen
for tho Salon of next year.
But IL was hard FOR hin, 20 ,,Ir.r
Gretchen All his pictures were Pbrvne-
Phryno in triumph. Ia ruin. in n n,Iace IN n
poorhouse, on a bed of roses. ON n bosnitaI
mattress; Phryne laughing with n belt Of
jewels about her supple waist; Phryne living
with the stones of the dead house upder ha1
naked limbs--but always Phryne. Phryne.
who living had death in her smile. pbryno
who lifelass had blank despair on her fooe:
Phrype. a thing that lived furiousIv every
second of her dnys hut Pbrvpa a tbino tbot
once being dead was corrion that could never
live again
Phryno has many pain,ars in tbis scboo, M
many as Catherine and Caci,;, haJ IN tha
schools of the RenaisSance ond ba WINS cbiof
amidst them.
How could hc paint Gretcben ~ tho n,r.
scb.frnr n,issod, NJ, 80, 20 ii,. ~ P
monks of old be stcenei bis br,,sbaS al, T ons
through in holy water
And in holy water be did NOT bo,io,,o
One evening, having left Antwcrnen r,n,.
inc its inn,merahIe boI,s ova, d. 1911
its dead Art. no leaned ont Of tho 90 ase,nan, -
an absent friends old paIaoe in tba prahaUt
street that is named after Mary of Burgnndv.
an old easement crusted with ouoint cary,
ings and gilded round in Spanish fagbiop with
many pargoyle, and orif,ins and ,IIer;hIa
scutchoons.
Leaning there, wondoring with b;ms.,
whether be wopld wait owbilo and mint