The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-12-04
A MOMENTS PASSION.
From All the Year Round.

tmperiling his happiness and Beatrice's by
Just crossing to Capri for a week.
A week Is but seven days, yet at 25
one may live great deal in seven days,
especially If you include the evenings, with
bright moon to them. and the Bay of
Naples for it to shine upon.
Beatrice and her mother remained at the
Hotel Victoria in Naples. They were Fall
coners, well-known people, and Phil was
engaged to Bee. She was pretty girl, but
after the colder type Of English beauty.
For instance, she was not prone to express
admiration for things and landscapes,
though she felt it. Her mother went to and
fro, looking at what she was hidden to look
at aud excaiming: Wonderful! What
excellent Iaste" and that sort Of thing.
Beatrice behaved as though her mother
spoke for her also. Mrs. Falconer was a
fine figure of woman, and carried her
long-stemmed tortoise-shen glasses with
considerable grace.
But there was no doubt about Bees affec-
ton for Phil, who was a cousin OF a remote
kind. Phil knew that this was so, for had
not he felt the gentle pressure of her arm
In his at moments of supreme ecstasy !;
when, for instance they were listening to
the music in the Villa Gardens on a royal
afternoon OF May or strolling up and down
the Via Caracciolo at promenade time, with
the crimson sunset clouds over the glorious
bay, Vesuvius q beauteous purple shade,
with a gold-tipped coronet, and the long
hesdland of Posilippo enchanting as the
arms Of a sirenG Yes, Phil knew his little
cousin better than any one else In the world,
and was content that he was to marry her
when she was 81.
As an artist of means the young man was
not compelled to sue nature and his own
artistic moods with crushing esrnestness.
He had about a thousand year and painted
only when the passion was strong on him.
In Naples. strange to say, he had not
once taken up brush. And yet IL was not
so very strange, either For they lad
lived In fashionable whirl, with dinners
and tennis 10 the garden of the Prince de
Castro-who edored all things English-sup-
pers at Posilippo under the starlight with
the splash OF the blue waves against the
base OF their supper table, the theater, and
Wagnsr's operas at the great house of San
Carlo, which costs the Neapolitans 30 much
20 maintain.
How should the sweet spirit of art find
corner in his soul in the midst Of this racket
10 tried to do so now and again, when, for
example, they sat on their hotel balcony
and looked at the moonlight on the bay, aud
listened to the seducing melody of mando~
Inns below them. But Beatrice was then its
rival. Her cold little hand set lightly on
Phils sinewy brown ones, banlshed 1t
when 1t seemed likely to assert its noble
sway.
And so in moment of dutifulness to his
ideals, Phil said one day:
II must go to Capri
Mrs. Falconer declined positively to make
this little voyage of four or five hours She
was wont to feel very I'll during the cross
Ing from Calais to Dover. Besides the BAY
Of Naples has vigorous little waves at times
and the packet boat Is q mean affair
m afx ha1 a
but It was no use.
That was how Phil came to set off by
himself. He waved his handkerchief in the
direction Of the Hotel Victoria for several
minutes, and then. having lighted a cigar.
turned his attention TO his fellow pasSsn<
gers and the gray, angular shape which
was soon to declare itself definitely az the
witching island which Tiherius tried 20
make into palace and country seat both
In one.
The passengers were what he expected.
mostly Teutonic, the gentlemen in German
made straw hats and coats fitting tight to
the waist, wearing spectacles for the most
part, with tin cases-for sandwiches dried
specimens, and 30 forth-slung from their
shoulders. and very much absorbed in their
baedekers, and the ladies' enthusiastic
enough to make him shudder Two or
three Britons in light suits lounged about,
rejecting the addresses Of the men who sell
COThl plnss bOEtOlSo-Sl0Il COMBS, ana copies
OF Neapolitan ''canZoni;" but he did not
feel drawn to them.
II shall be rather glad when Ihave got
through the trip" n1urmured Phil to him
self. Il miss Bee already. No. thanks. I
don't want any. tell you desire none of
your things. Can't you leave a fellow
alone, you beastly nuisanceP'
These words were forced from him by the
solicitations of the deck merchants, who
slowed surprising patience and assiduity
the end they were repaid for their per-
stance, as usual. Phil, like many others,
SCENT several francs in buying them off into
O other direction.
That night, however, In the Hotel Pa
gano, where you may see some wonderfully
realistic frescoes on the dining room walls
the result or Capri wine, Capri sunlight
and air, and the exuberance of spirits that
possesses the artists in the island-Phil was
lain to confess that he felt marvelouSly at
home. He had drunk some excellent wine
at the table d'hote, not the ordinary table
huld by any means, and had enjoyed some
very lively conversation. His neighbor
was veteran Englishman who spent three
months annually in Capri. "and mean to
DO 30 as long as can toddle, SIR" The gen.
tiemaD, like himself, had a turn for art.
and had taken Phil to his private room aud
shown him his pictures.
II the young man had had the gift of
saAehtnA dnhiy SIS, n6 WOulO nave realized that
MS excitement was due in degree to a GER
tain one OF these pictures.
1t was a conventional enough study-a
girl In Capri costume, with pitcher on her
head; background, staring white wall,
with the sun and lizard on it, and the
crest OF a palm tree above the wall But the
girls face won him in a moment.
MIR. Brabazon. the stranger, laughed when
Fhil expressed his admiration.
She's young yet; in a few years she'll be
bag. IL you like, I'll send round word
that you'd like to have her for sitting or
tive. It's good chance, as five artists
cleared out yesterday to take their canvases
70 the show at Milan.
A sweet, If rather bold, face of II or Is,
with eyes dove-like, and yet with the most
aIluring OF slight smiles In their brown
depths, the lips just parted with the smile,
white, even teeth, hands and feet and ears
All small for a southerner-suoh was Caro-
liza Certi, the model
brsbazon seemed trifie amused at the
way In which Phil expressed his sense Of
che girls beauty.
;. ~, yes, she's well enough, with high spir-
It's IKE all these Capri damsels. She'll be
spoiled out and out by and by, and box a
mans ears as soon as look at him, but not