The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-09-22


restrained in talk with the painter; ard
she tried to cry cut, that they might
| hear her where they were in an atJ2ln
! ing room, but her cry frcze on her hpS
at the sight Of Giraldo's passion. Aud be
cried in a hoarse whisper:
''He shall not have the picture, he
shall not have it," And As he spoke he
moved nearer to the Prime cess, who still
shrank away from him, being now in
very great alarm and thinking that
surely he had ron mad. Yet she looked
at him and looking, saw whence his
madness came; and she felt pity for him
and held out her clasped hands towards
| him, saying in q very soft voice ano
with eyes that grew sad and tender:
"Ah, signor, Signor, am l always to
have lovers, and never a friend 2"
At this the unfortunate painter was
overcome and, dropping his head be
tween his hands, he gave deep, halt
stifad sob, and then he cried;
Goods curse on me, for having sian
dered the beauty that I love !" And
then he sobbed again.
But the Princess wondered greatly
what he meant by his strange cry, and
turning her eyes again oa him IN be
wi,dered questioning, saying, as she
pointed to the picture;
There is no SANDER here, Sigu0T, an
| less too much praise be SANDER.
Giraldo made no answer in words, but
springiDg towards her, caught her by
the wrist, and drew her across the
room, to the door behind the easel.
With feYarish haste he unlocked it and
passed through. The Princess al,
though now free from his grip, fol
lowed him in a sort Of fascination.
GfiIaldO drew the door close behind him,
and at the moment the princess gave a
cry, half a scream, half laughter. For
facing her she saw, each on its easel
three, four, FIVE, six pictures OF herself,
each beautiful aud painted most low
ingly; and the last Of the six was
the picture that had been painted by or
der of the King of Gutenberg, For
she knew it by the attire, although
the face had not been finished when
she had last seen it. A sudden en-
| Hghtenment pierced her mind and
she knew that Graldo had not
sent the pictures for which she had sat to
him, hut had kept them himself aud
/ sem others to his patrons. This strange
&C nvictiOn found its sure confirmation IN
| a seventh easel which stood apart from
! the rest, on the other side Of the door;
! for it supported what was in all respect
a copy of the portrait on which Giraldo
was now engaged, save that by cunning
touches he had impaired to the face an
alien and fearful aspect; for here al
though the features had their shape and
perfect grace, yet it was the face OF a
devil that looked on on the canvas, q
face that man would not have azing
at him from the wall on to the bed where
he sought sleep.
But when Giraldo saw her eyes fixed
on this picture, he cried, That is for
you--the other is mine. Are they not
your features The King Of Gutenberg
should not have even your features. Bat
! goS shall have them, and If a
devil looS5 out through such fair mask
is it not 80 with all fair women, that
lead even to destruction There is
your true picture, Prirc9ss Osra p
And he flung himself on couch with
a mad cry of rage and then groan OF
despair.
The Princess O3ra looked at him, and
at the beautiful pictures, and then at the
picture that was like her and yet like a
devil. First she pitied the painter, and
then marveled at his wonderful skill
that so transformed her without draw,
ing line that could be called untrue.
Thus thinking, she stood for while,
grave and puzzled. Bat then the hu-
NOR struck her, as it struck her house
always in great things and in small; and
it seemed to her most ludicrous that the
pictures should all be resting here III Gil
RADIOS house, while the princes who had
commanded portraits of her, had re-
ceivfd nothing but distorted parOdies of
her face to the end that they might be
disguised and. abandoning the alliance
they had projected, leave her still at
Strelsau to be paint d times out Of mum
Der, and most fruitIessy, by this mad
painter Aud, these thoughts gaining
the mastery over the others, in spite of
the sad plight of unhappy Signor Gira!do,
her lips curved into a bow, her eyes
cleaned in dancing merriment, and a
moment later she broke into q glad, glee-
full laugh that rose and rippled and fell
to soft delighted murmugings. And she
looked again at the picture that was like
her, and also like devil, and her mirth
grew at the ingenuity Of the work ard
the knocking deyiltry so cunningly made
out of her face. Small wonder was it to
her now, that the embassies bad not
come.
The Princess Osra thus stood laughing,
ard presently S;g1 Giraldo looked up,
and when he had listened and looked for
few moments, his wild mood caught
The infection from her, SO that, spring
ing to his feet, he also began to laugh
loudly, like a man who cannot restrain
his amusement but is carried away by it
beyond all bounds and restraint. Thus
Giraldo laughed loudly, long aud fierce
IL; for there was madness in his laugh.
And the Princess heard the madness,
and, even while she still laughed, her
eyes opened in wonder; alarm came on
her face, her merry laugh quivered,
trembled, checked IN her throat, and at
last died away into dumbness; yet her
lips hung apart, frozen in the shape of
Laughter, while no laughter c me. And
as her laugh thus ended in mute horror,
his grew louder yet and wilder, and its
peal rang through the room, as he gasped
between his spasms of horrid mirth:
''You, you, you" and pointed at the
picture which he had touched into dev.
lishness. But she shrank away and
stood crOuched against the wall: for she