Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-22

unreserved you felt that his thoughts were
soaring above your level; that he was gaz-
ing whittier your sight could not penetrate;
perhaps into the rich storehouse of memory;
perhaps into an Utopia of his own invention.
Everybody admitted that Theophile was a
charming, lovable fellow; but they modi-
fed their praise by calling him eccentric. !"
He had his ideals in art and in life; he
believed in the impossible, and in his su-
perstltions was more of Buddhist than
Christian. He was fastidious to a fault;
cruel in his criticism of women, and so the
announcement that he was shortly to be
married aroused the surprise and cynicism
of his friends. Some claimed that he had
secured an unique specimen of real angel;
others that he was engaged to q dream
woman, to fancy born of his love for the
imaginary and impossible. The general
conclusion, in which, however, l did not
share, was that Theophile was proof of the
saying that genius is allied to madness.
l had called on him at his studio to con-
gratulate him on his approaching marriage,
but found him'in a dreamy reticent mood,
which suddenly disappeared when he handed
me the sketch. Knowing the peculiarities
of my friend, / felt that some rare history
was connected with the painting, and 1
studied it with deep interest. 1t was a
rough, vigorous sketch OF a woman's head,
an Egyptian or Arab maiden of the better
class, Of type OF beauty that was not east
ern. The skin was dark, the hair black,
but under the low, narrow forehead there
cleaned a pair of laughing blue eyes. All
the expression, the soul, the emotion, were
in the eyes. The lips were small and ex-
quisitely shaped; the nose, with its sensitive
nostrils, of wonderful delicacy; the head
was gracefully planted on beautifully
rounded neck; the shoulders were perfect;
but 1t required an effort to see all this; to
drag away your attention from the laugh
ing eyes that held you enthralled and
Knocked your enthusiasm with strange
gayety that suggested sadness.
"a portrait?" 1 asked ansently.
can unintentional portrait, but a portrait
nevertheless. am in the mood to tell the
strange story connected with it, and that is
the reason why dragged it from its safe
hiding place" .
"It is very beautiful faee," said, to
break silence, during which he thought
fully puffed cigarette and stared idly into
space. Everything is beautiful if you
dive down to the soul of it. Has the cobra
venom9 That is the superficial, practical
aspect But sit awhile, as I have done,
staring into its eyes, fascinating and being
fascinated, and you will tell different
story. u Ugliness is mans excuse for ignor-
ance; what he knows only partially he con-
demns. Man has his idea of beauty, Nature
hers. BAIL Man is always provincial in
his tastes"
"It you fling aesthetics and metaphysics at
me, 1 surrender without fighting. Your
beauty here is lauGhing.at you"
"She has the right, for living she suffered
for ,ne and still suffers for me-
"a paradox, then, in the portrait which
is not portrait.
"a paradox, - he nodded, (which is an
other way OF saying woman. Give her
name. and L will tell the story"
"Why not the real name %
''The name you give will be the real one
1t is irresistible"
"Almah. them" said, obstinately deter
mined to disappoint him.
Precisely P' he answered, calmly. "You
could not miss ii p
"You do not mean -"
"I mean nothing, my English materialist
with the instincts of the logical Frenchman.
Listen and believe or disbelieve, and when
1 have finished join the general chorus, tap
your head and call me eccentric or insane.
But while listening forget that science has
benefited humanity by wiping out heaven;
and believe that the soul theory is something
more than an exploded medieval tradition.
You will thus err on the side of Plato. on
the side of Pythagoras, on the side OF
Buddha, but by and by you can escape back !
to realism-say In the Jardin Mab1lle 70
"Your mysterious hints already interest |
me. Your fine spiritual nature always SUBJ |
dues my coarser materialism. am Bud