The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1891-04-24
PHANTOM PORTRAIT.

q o'Brien VIII support me, with pipes and pota-
Corne oarly and wv vonr friend for life,
$500 DICK GRAVES"
y I had nothing particular to do. so l
sent word round to Dick that l should
tupA UP, having first made sure that
Teddy O'Brien, whose studio was in
the same block. would go also. Quiller
we. knew of old. as all the world knew
him-a man who had seen everything.
done everything, been everywhere-
and these occasional visits of his were
n perpetual terror to Graves. Why he
paid Them we never knew. There was
a kind of traditional friendship be-
tween the families certainly, but
Quiller was a man who scoffed Mt tra-
dition. He was in every way out of
j.. sympathy with a set of ardent and inn
pecnnious painters, As journalist, as
traveller, as mau of the world. he hal
outliyed his enthusiasms. Life con-
taiaed no new experiences, no sur
prises for him, 1t was only monot-
onous round of the known and the ex-
pected.
Dick Graves, who usually shone as
=. a host, was not at his best that evening.
He was nervous at first. and rather
silent. leaving the burden of the talk
ITO Teddy aud myself; and we had the
III luck as the punch circulated to light
on a vein of humorous stories, at
which we laughed eonsumedly our
selves without eyoking even smile
from the guest of the evening.
..Will vou fellows look over my
Cornish sketehes?" said Graves. sud
denly jumping up in desperation.
There are some you have not seen;'
and he began to rummage about among
q pile of old eanvasses.
Quiller resumed his seat and sat
half-absently. half contemptuously,
watching us as we turned over the
paintings, possibly he was amused by
our jargon of tone" and quality"
and the rest. At length | picked up
from the heap a painting that caught
my eye and propped it on the easel
near the lamp. It was quite unlike
Graves usual work. and stood look
ing at it for a moment. no4 quite
knowing why l did So 1t was the
head Of - Seang woman. pale aud
slightly worn. She WAS leaning little
forward, looking NsEt OF the pictur.
her mouth parted by a slight, tren,.
l0us, smile. and ia her eyes look that
was a strange naingling of emotions.
as if q new hope and happiness had
come into a life of sorrow look half
exultant turned to speak to Graves
and saw that Quiller had got up aud
was standing gazing at the picture
we're al last was something that inter
ested him..
Where did you get tha,31 he asked
abruptly.
What do you think OF aP" said
Graves. SLOWLY.
Its good head said Teddy
0'Brien.
"It's wonderful mo.iel> . said l.
- face to batutt one. said CUTLER,
In
evnioal one.
vAh, that's it, said Graves. Its
more than human"
Who is itp'' said Quiller, in his
abrupt way again.
''Pon my soul cant tell yoa, for
don't know. rs queer story, and
one I'm almost ashamed to ask YOU to
believe l sha'u't blame you if YOU
think I'm, humbugging.
We settled ourselves by the fire with
our pipes. and Dick began his story in
a manner. for him. so unusually grave
and impressive that it seemed to leave
no room for doubt as to his perfect
good faith in the matter.
II went into Cornwall, as you know.
at the end of summer. and after Loaf
ing round Newlyn fog while / went
to the south coast. to try aud fintt some
place that had been less painted. l
staid few days at Polperro. bsst it was
all so much like the smaller exhibi-
tions in town that | could not stand it.
and i finally landed at naming
a small seaport town-''wke there
were no painters and not many visitors.
l stayed at the Ship inn and looked
round for some place be, hang up my
pallet. After some inQueries | found
small cottage which had been empty
for some time, but which had evident
" been ased as studio, for there was
a wall knocked out at one side and
good-sized room added. with a high
Rerth light. On the south side the.
kitchen and 'parlor which opened one.
into the other. had view of the loKe-
iest little harbor in the world. The
place was just what | wanted, and the.
rent was absurd-only f10 a year;- 50
took it for six months. on the. under
standing L was to keep it on if. chose.
bought few things to, make the
place comfortable, and got an old
woman to look after it for, me-, but I
lived most of the time at the Ship inn,
and just at first spent very httle time
at the studio, only taking in my can
vases at night. When October set in
cold and wet l had, to do, some work
indoors, and then it. was I began to
think there was something queer about
the place One day had been paint
ing young girl from the village. the
granddaughter of my ancient dame,
and 1 was, putting on few touches to
the background. when heard a sound
close behiad me. like a very gentle
sigh. 1 looked round quickly, but
there was no one in sight-no one in
the room, in fact. Iwent on painting.
with an uncomfortable feeling of some
thing uneanny, and in few minutes
the sound was repeated actually at my
ear. / dropped my brush with the
start i made, and then 1 went all
through the house to see if anyone was
In it. / knew that Annie and her
grandmother had gone home. and
thought hoped-that some poor
soul had crept in to shelter from the
rain by the Kitchen fire. Well. there
was not a soul near the place. 1 lock-
ed up carefully that night when L
went back to the inn. and in the solace
of glass of grog and pipe before I
went to bed l almost persuaded my
self there was nothing 10 it. In the
morning had really forgotten it. 1
fancy, but when / got back to the
studio curious thing happened Right
across the face in my picture were a
couple of brush-Inarks such as Won