Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1893-01-08


l may be quite wrong"
''No, you are right, as you alwas are;
can see il now. will just go over 1t
7 again, and then, after an hour or SOS
work lie down. 1 shall look and feel
less tired when Mabel comes to see me
this afternoon.
"Well, I'll be of and leave you to 1t.
Who the deuce Obi here's that fell
low Eversleigh coming. He will otcare
about seeing me, we were never the
best Of friends. But 1 thought he was
always-abroad."
$50 be was, she wonder is to see him
now. Back just In time, too; l am
pleased. I was afraid 1t would all have
been over before; but now, next 70 Ma
bel there Is no one L"
"DO you mean you are going to show
hlm-thiS?"
"Why not? He is my very oldest,
closest friend"
"Oh! please yourself OF course. Only
were / you-after the way some OF your
other friends have behaved, and all
that"
"But Eversleigh is"
"CandOr its4f, no doubt. Still, 1
would learn first whether he is going in
himself One never knows. Time
enough to show him-if you must
after that"
"You-you think SOP"
81 am sure so. In some things you
really are little better than a child.
Don't you see il for yourself?'
"Well, perhaps you are right; though
| 1 should IS soon have thought Of doubt
ling-but maybe you are right"
And with that, after repeating:
"Why, OF course; its only common
sense. II is far too late to profit by any
suggestion he might make, so you just
keep the curtain down. He'll see it on
view, and-but l must be of. don't
wish to meet him here" Farrell had
gone hurriedly away.
Hardly had be got clear OF the side
door than Eversleigh, the ''oldest, clos
est friend" came in at the front, and
after the first awkwardness Of "welcom-
ing the coming" with the warning
words OF the "Darting" guest still sound
ing in his ears, Merivale gradually
thawed and relapsed into the old init
mate relations. While EverSleigh,
after one quick glance at his friends
face, and then at the signs Of disorder
and neglect about the studio, began to
talk:
"Well, and what have you been doing
all this long time? Too busy to write,
eh?"
Eyes, too busy, and too-shall I say
absorbed? Both, THINK" laughed the
other nervously, with q trace Of the
awkwardness OF doubt still lingering
about him.
.You seem a trife ley even now.
How, or what is it?-is that fair Ques-
tion?"
why, you mist know, or, rather,
you DO know, that 1 am very much in
love"
quite so; so much you did send me
word. Aud how fares the tender pas
slon?"
"In some respects well, nothing could
! be better, but"
"Oh! there are butts"
THAT goes without saying, does it
not?" and again the laugh sounded
nervous and constrained before he ma
ished 1T is part Of the usual proba
ton, and of-the whole story, in
short"
"Well, fire away-unless, by the way,
am not TO hear it," returned Ever
sleigh, with another swift and keenly
obserVant glance.
"Ohl you should hear all there is to
tell. OF course you know all about the
great competition"
Certainly; though I don't quite
see"
Possibly not, but you will when you
hear that l am sending in"
/ Eversleigh's face changed little in
spite OF himself as he answered.:
what, you, landscape man, go in
! for"
: "Oh, 1 knew what you would say,
but I-I-eall me q fool il you will;
but it was borne in upon me that-in
short, l had what thought was an In
spiration by way of an idea"
"But the subject, for you, don't you
think, is insuperably difficult? You
/ know always advised you to
"Stick to what you thought my line.
I know, and possibly 1 should have
done so but for"
He hesitated, while his friend inter
posed anxiously, but with an enconrag-
ing smile:
sWell?"
"Bnt for my idea. Say that I was
infatuated, possessed, or what you
will"
Il can't say that until have seen
the idea"
"But I mean thoroughly possessed
with the subject and the desire TO work
il out.
"Oh, there Il no particular harm in
that, always providing"
1T Is no use, Eversleigh, / may have
been a FOO. hardly know yet; but l
have staked al upon this one throw
have given up everything else for it
all my commissions aud my other work.
Not only that, Mabel agreed 10 sit for
the principal figure, and l think that
her doing 50 Inspired me; while work
oh, how have worked, and
what agOnies of alternate desire and de-
spondency have endured AS az art
ist you may have some idea, and, any
how, you are the only one tell, except
yes. OF course-eXcept Farrell"
Farrell; what Of him? 1 always did
detest that man" This came quickly.
| And -"
That Is because you do not know
him." objected the other.
"Say rather because do. But what
OF him? What could he have to say or
do I'm the affair? l thought"
"Thst we were rivals. So we were
until be showed himself my friend. l
don't know why we should have both
so miSjudged him; but from the
very hour that Mabel assured
him he had no chance he
changed, and although he has never