The Coconino weekly sun., 1894-06-21

= NAlNIROlO liked l,of, her e%1 e <
 giEssS \ the Ital liam Hsga -sS tone in
 CsI color. More over, he grew interested in her from certain words and hints she let fall. She was devout Catholic, but ad- mitted she had not always been so.
 One day Williot led her on step by step to tell her story, and how she had become devout. They were discussing matrimony in the abstract, and she ap- peared so conversant with the law be- tween man and wife that he asked her how she knew it.
 "How did come to know the law?" said she. Well, because you see was brought up behind the scenes born in the property room of provin- cial theater, and educated to emerge gracefully from pantomime pies or gigantic rosebuds as diminutive fairy. With this refined birth and training l learned many things not generally imparted to children. At any rate, very early knew that a man could legally chastise his wife, so long as he never struck her with a stick thicker than your little finger. knew this, I say, because heard it explained by the lawyers when my father was sent to jail for having beaten my mother with something good deal thicker than the prescribed dimensions permitted"
 Williot smiled and suggested that that edifying spectacle had apparently not deterred her from taking hus- band herself.
 "No," she answered, "and Twas only seventeen when l did marry"
 "How did that come about?"
 "Because l was self-willed young fool, and I thought loved the other self-willed young fool, who was our assistant scene painter. was playing general utility in the theater, and he was painting general utility, as you might call it."
 Did you love him then?" interposed Williot.
 "'Yes, say so, but got to hate him as well. Love and hate seemed ever to go hand in hand with me all through. First one was uppermost, then the other. A contradictory, violent-tem- pered young wretch I was. l never tried to control my passions-rd never been taught. My mother always said never had heart; perhaps she was right"
 "Tell me, why did you hate your husband?"
 "Because found he had stronger will than l had, and because he grew to be more savage and morose as he got on in his profession, oddly enough. Be- cause, too, he was as artful as he was handsome; and he knew the law bet ter than my father. He never struck me with stick at all, thick or thin, but once, and that once settled the business, but shall come to that pres ently. Yes, he was clever fellow, too, in his art. He gave up scene painting and painted pictures instead that sold at high prices. He used to make me sit as his model often, and l hated that more than anything. You may wonder that 1 didn't run away from him long before did. The truth is I was afraid of him. He cowed the very life out of me. At one time he made a lot of money, but he couldn't keep it, and finally we had togo abroad to avoid creditors.
 We went to Rome, and lived there several years. In those days an artist could live there very cheaply, as we did, but still he got into debt again, and for months he was afraid to show himself by daylight. You can guess how we carried on, and if you can't it won't matter, and so, as I've told you so much, I'll come to that last scene between us, which, as l say, settled the business. l seemed to be quick at languages, and picked up good smat- tering of Italian, and being still pret- ty he made me sit as model for other painters in order sometimes to get food. He even went so far, and l didn't mind, as to make me go and wait in the Piazza di Spagna, on hire with the native models. At first they were inclined to resent Sig. In- glese's intrusion on their domain, but they were good-natured people, and put up with me after awhile.
 ''He was in hiding at that time, and I had to go to and from home with the greatest care, so as not to betray our whereabouts. My training on the stage, and then as a model, made me pretty nimble at disguises and wear ing strange dresses, and when l went on hire to the piazza.
 "We lived in curious half-ruined place, part of what had once been the chapel of Benedictine monastery. We hired it of a kindly old monk for song, but no one else lived in the building we were there quite alone. l forget exactly where it was, but it was out side the city, on the edge of the Cam pagna We had small room where he painted, with part of it divided by a curtain where we slept, At the foot of the short stone stair leading up to this apartment from the outer door, another stone stair led down to a sort of vault or crypt, lighted up by a