Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1892-03-09

| DeSot MS pain, GulllarQ1n reTraceQ MS
life, year by year, from the day when
he began to learn modelling in Jouf-
froy's studio. All! the outset is hard
in that confounded profession. He re-
membered the fireless winters, the
sleepless nights, the endless walks in
search of work, the desperate rage eX-
perienced at feeling so small, so lost,
and unknown in the immense crowd
that pushes, hustles, upsets and
crushes. And yet, all alone, without
patronage or money, he had managed
to rise. By sheer talent, sir. And his
head thrown back, and eyes half shut,
the worthy man kept repeating out
loud to himself: "By sheer talent
Nothing but talent"
A long burst of laughter, dry and
creaky like an old mans laugh, sud
denly interrupted him. Slightly start
led, Guillardin glanced around the
room. He was alone, quite alone, tete-
a-tete with his green coat, the ghost of
an Academician solemnly spread out
opposite him, on the other side of the
fire. And still the insolent laugh rang
on. Then as he looked at it more in
tently, the sculptor almost fancied that
his coat was no longer in the place
where he had put it, but really seated
|
and sleeves resting on the arms of the
chair, the fronts puffed ont with an
appearance of life.
Incredible as it may seem, it was this
| thing that was laughing. Yes, it was
from this singular green coat that arose
| the uncomfortable fits of laughter by
which it was agitated, shaken and con-
vulsed, causing it to jerk it's tails, throw
| itself back in the chair, and at mo-
| ments place it's two sleeves against it's
sides, as though to check this supernat-
| ural and ineXtinguishable excess of
mirth. At the same time, feeble
voice, sly and mischievous, could be
heard saying between two hiccups:
| ''Oh dear, oh dear, how it hurts one to
laugh like this! How it hurts one to
laugh like this!''
'Who the devil is there, for mercy's
sake?' asked the poor Academician
with staring eyes.
The voice continued still more slyly
and mischievously.
But it's |, M. Guillardin, I, your
palm embroidered coat, waiting for you
to start for the reception | must.
crave pardon for having so unreason-
ably interrupted your musing, but real
ly it is too funny to hear you talk of
your talent! | could not restrain my
self. Come, you can't be serious? Can
you conscientiously believe that your
talent has sufficed to raise you so rapid
| ly to the point you have attained in
! life; that it has given you all you
! possess hOnOrs, position, fame. fortune?
Do you really think that possible, Gull
| lardin? Examine yourself, my dear
| friend, before answering; go down, far,
| far, down into your inmost conscience.
| Now, answer me? Don't you see you
dare not?''
"And yet,n stammered Guillardin,
| with comical hesitation, 1--WE worked
a great deal"
ooh, yes, a great deal, you have fag-
ged tremendously. You are toiler, a
drudge, you knock off a great deal of
work. You count your task by thei
hour, like a cab driver. But the spark,
my dear boy, which like golden bee
fits through the brain OF the true artist
and emits from its wings both light and
music, when has it ever visited YOU?
Not once, and you are well aware of it,
1t has always frightened, YOU that di-
vine little bee? And yetsit is this only
that gives real talent. All | know
many who also work, but very differ
entity from you, with all the anxiety
and fever of sincere research, and yet
who will never reach the point YOU
have attained. Look here, acknowl-
edge this much, now we are alone
Your one talent has been marrying a
pretty woman,
''Sir!" interrupted Guillardin, turn
ing purple.
The voice proceeded unchanged:
"Ah, well! This burst of Indignation
is good sign. 1t proves to me what
all the world knows indeed; that YOU
are certainly more fool than knave
Come, come, you need not roll such
furious eyes at me. In the first place,
if you touch me, if you make the least
crease or tear in me, it will be impossi-
BILE to go to the reception to-day, and
then what will Nine. Guillardin say?
For after all, it is to her that all the
glory of this great day is due 1t is
she who the five Academies are about
to receive, and | can assure YOU that if
l appeared at the Institute on her pret-
ty person, still so elegant and slender
Notwithstanding her age, | should cut
a very different figure than with you.
Confound it, M. Guillardin, we must
look facts in the face! You owe every
thing to that woman everything, your
house, your 10000 francs ($900O) a year,
your cross of the Legion of Honor, your
laurels, your medals
And with the gesture of the one arm
ed man, the green coat, with its empty
embroidered sleeve, pointed out to the
unfortunate sculptor the glorious in
sigma hung up on the walls of his al
cove. Then, as though as wishing the
better to torment his victim, to assume
every aspect and every attitude, the
cruel coat drew nearer the fire, and,
leaning forward on his arm chair with
little old fashioned and confidential
air, he spoke familiarly, in the tone
of long established intimacy.
Come, old boy, what I've said seems
to upset you. Yet it is better you
should know what everywhere is aware
of. And who could tell you better
than your own coat? Let US reason a
| little. What had you when you mar
ried? Nothing. What did your wife
bring you? Nothing. Then how do
you explain your present fortune? You
are going to repeat again that you
have worked very hard But, my poor
friend, working day and night, with all
the patronage and the orders from gov
ernment which have certainly not
| been wanting to you since your mar
riage, you have never made more than
$4,000 francs $4,000 a year. Can you
for one moment suppose that was suf-
ticient to keep up an establishment like
yours? Remember that the beautiful
Nine. Guillardin has always been cited
as model of elegance, frequenting the
richest society. OF course, l am well
aware that, shut up as you were, from
morning till night in your studio, you
never gave thought to all this. You
were satisfied with saying to your
friends I have wife who is a surpris-
ingly skillful manager With what |
gain she not only pays our expenses,
but manages also to put by money 1t
was you who were surprising, poor
mani The truth was that you had mar
ried one of those pretty little unscru-
pulous creatures of which Paris is full,
an ambitious fiirt, serious in what con-
cerned your interests and unprejudiced
in regard of her own, knowing how to
| reconcile your affairs and her pleasures.
The life of these women, my dear fel-
low, resembles a dance programme in