Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-01-10

lines into order than to do nothing"
'tAll the same, l have no satisfaction
in any work done them
"Ah. parsons blood again-no need
you should, but you needn't add it to
the list of your sins, that would be
rather work of supererogation, woul
wouldn't it?''
Il would like to go out into the
desert alone for forty days or so, and
| wrestle with anything that came
along, God or the devil
"a very proper attitude of mind and
| BETTING your breed. In the meantime,
when do you intend returning to Pa
ris?'
81 must go tomorrow"
''Why must you?"
because he hesitated, blushing
furiously.
Good Heavens, man, speak out!
Have we been friends for fifteen years
for nothing?"
"Well, beastliness, however cheap
you do it, is costly. Even your mag
nificent commission has gone down the
gutter
cit wouldn't pay either of us for you
to return there just now, besides,
want you to come over and stay at
my house."
81 cannot stay in the house with
Lady Strange" said Brydon in a low
voice, II couldn't. If l am not clean
enough to work at my Art 1 am GER
tainly not fit to eat and drink in her
presence. 1 didn't stay in my fathers
house until my mother and sisters
had gone away, and-Lady Strange,
somehow, is divine to me. She is
always the bride in that picture. |
Think he continued, with a strange
softness in his voice, ''for all her jeer-
ing at me, that 1 have painted the
real woman" 1t was Strange's turn
to vince this time.
"Look here, Strange" the boy went
on, still softly and with lowered head,
81 finished that picture before l went
into the sty. I wouldn't have touched
her with dirty brush
"My dear fellow, know it! should
have liked you to have stayed with
us. At any rate you will stay in Lon
y
banker, of course; it will be after all
only very trif1ing increase of your
debt to me, and there's plenty of time
to pay that in
He took hold of the fellows arm
and swung him round.
cts getting late,'' he said, land I
want to see the picture tonight
They walked on in silence, the boy S
chivalrous alteration of his wife touch
ed Strange sharply. All the same, he
felt vastly inclined to turn round and
punch his head for it.
GLOW dared the fellow go speculate
ing on her possibilities!' he thought;
''that is my business.
"Yet when one comes to think of
it, I'm an ass, l might just as we'll
go for the dozens of others whose ad-
miration is quite as vicarious. It's
not Gwen one of the lot goes mad
over, it's her double. Heigh no! Big
amy's an awful embarrassment.
81 tried to keep exactly to Nature
in that last picture of Lady Strange
said Brydon, as he set to unfastening
the packing of his picture.
"You succeeded" said Strange. Bry-
don looked round.
"You didn't like it then-no more
did l. tried too hard to be faithful
to the ORDER
"Wcll, and SO yol were, and that
was what was wanted of you. Mrs.
Warning. for whom the portrait was
intended. liked it tremendously" said
Strange shortly Damn the fellows
impudencev he thought.
Brydon continued his cutting and
unwinding, painfully red in the face.
When it was all undone he waited
a moment before he removed the last
covering, then he pulled it off with a
quick soft movement, ard from a
vague feeling Of half shy delicacy he
turned aside and began to cut up to-
bacco diligently.
When Strange saw his wife, not the
cold living abstraction. but a warm,
big-hearted. divinely-natural creature,
alive there on the canvas before him,
a sudden soft rush of tears flooded his
eyes, and he shook and reeled at the
queer warm shock of them.
bryuCIl lie SdNl, IuTulIlS TOuUu
suddenly, zone makes a fool of ones
self over her. it is a tribute to your
genius"
Brydon looked at him and hesitated,
then he said in a half-fearful tone,
! looking away:
"It is no tribute to my genius, it is
that face! I never cried, have roared
and howled, you know, scores Of times,
but never cried probably till 1 saw it;
it is the strongest and the most touch
ing woman's face 1 ever saw"
SIT is, and you have done infinite
justice to it,
II had to paint her as she was there,
! I couldn't help myself, l shall never
again do anything like it."
"What does Legrun say of it?''
He was silent for a minute.
did you think" ne asked at last
angrily. chat ! did that for Le.grun's
praise or blame? Did l paint her to be
torn limb from limb by those Steely
eyes,"
''As a matter Of fact did not expect
anything half so sensible from you
but this-this," he added slowly, with
a spasm of infinite generosity, "this
shall hang in the Academy
IF it does" said the boy, 81 shall
never touch a brush again"
'Well, we won't discuss it now