The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-01-24
NO 25
RUsNN's WEDDING ROMANCE.
The story Of the Eccentric Critics Mar
riRge aud Divorce.

riRge aud Divorce.
John Ruskln did n strangely wayward
thing when he consented 10 get marie
He did most crratic and, TO the public.
most inexplicable thing when he arrang,
for his divorce. lie had acc tied some Of
the loftiest traditions abou Fwomanhood
that men sometimes read and talk about,
and he looked for his ideal companion One
night he met her in the drawing room Of "A
London friend, who, without his knowing
II, had brought the young lady to meet the
eyes OF the great writer
II was June night. He was 35, and she
looked like Greek goddess He was da =.
rled. She was tall, graceful girl Of L..
with n face and figure as faultless as one O..
the statues Of old No one ever expected
Ruskin TO fall in love, and he did not She
was poor, needed a home and its comforts,
and so they were married.
Their welded life was peaceful, friendly,
kindly to the highest degree, but there was
not @ spark Of affection to enlighten their
existence. She admired the great man she
had married and was grateful for the wealth
and comfort he showered on her. He wor-
shipped her as he would the marble made
lifelike by the sculptor's chsel
There was nothing human about the life
they led as husband and wife, and she was
woman who in her heart, like all true
women, laughed at the traditions that
made her sex love distant worship.
One day Ruskin brought an artist to
paint his wife's picture And the man was
Millais, and he was a bright, CHEEKY, hand
some fellow, human every inch OF him. with
a great and absorbing love for the beautiful
and a willingness to tell of his love.
He began to paint the portrait OF the
4 4
ished he was in love with his friends wife.
Womanlike she saw it, and perhaps she
was not full of sorrow and reproach. 1t
was the first tribute OF real manly love that
had ever laid at her feet.
And Ruskinl His wide eyes saw the ro-
nance that was weaving around those two
lives, and his heart realized how little at-
fection he had to lavish on the woman he
had made his wife. How he told her tho
story of his pride in her, and the sacrifice
he was to make for her, while she lay prone
at his feet, is one of the things which only
he or she could tell
II /. difficult to obtain n divorce in Eng
land, but John Ruskin secured it for her,
and one bracing morning in the early win
ter, n month after the divorce was granted,
Ruskin stood beside the couple in one Of
LondOn's quiet churches and saw them
made man and wife.
That was good many years ago. and
since then Millais has become rich and fa-
nous and is now Sir John, and his wife is
my Lady Millais. The warmest, sturdiest
friend the struggling painter had in his
tOiling days was the man whose wife be
had married. and through all the years of
Millais' later success and greater honor
John Ruskin has been the welcome guest
and daily visitor to the man and woman
whose lives he so unseliishly crowned with
happiness.
1t isa strange story, and the world knows
little about it, and some men have con-
demned him, as some women have censured
her But the two men and that one woman
who knew best have been happy and con-
tented with the change that John Ruskin's
pure unselfishness brought into their lives.
And so the world should not complain
Chicago News.