Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1896-02-21


TO more fitting environments than the
slush and snow of the windy March
twilight. The stalwart young man
who lowered above it returned the
earnest gaze with an irresolute smile.
A soiled photograph was hardly worth
staining ones gloves, but the gaze Of
the earnest eyes transfxed and held
him. He stopped and picked up the
bit of pasteboard, cleaned it as best
he might with his immaculate hand
kerchief, wrapped it within its soft
linen folds and went his way down the
darkening street with the leisurelv.
swinging stride that was quitea reada-
bic an index of the man as we're his
voice and smile.
Jack Huyler was that favored crea-
ture. man with genuine innate artis-
tic talent. The man with. a talent for
buying and selling, the man with n
talent for languages, the man with a
talent for invention--allt these and their
like must be content with the rank of
mediocrity unless financial success in
vest them with its golden halo of rev.
erence; but the man who paints pic
lures, though a doubtful Bohemian.
may hobnob with the great and mighty
of the earth, albeit his sole "expeote-
tions" may rest on the possibly fortu-
nate sale of his last eapyas. Whether
or not Jack Huyler could support
family by the fruits of his dilettante
sRunterings through the field OF arr
was a question still unsolved b. the
young mans most pertinaciously re-
naming single.
Jack was unfortunately handsome;
for beauty is undoubtedly misfortune
TO its possessor, though most pleas
ing property to gaze upon and admire
impersonally. Physical charms stand
q man instead of those mental eraces
which endear him to the fair sex-the
deferential homage, the delicate con-
sideration, tho easy grace of repartee
and that genial camaradelie more
pleasing IN the eyes of true woman
than mere physical comeliness. And
his many experiences with tho light
headed and callow specimens of their
kind who openly lay snares for his en-
ticing, dull his belief in sweet womanly
reserve and modest sensibility.
In his own self-conhdent convictions
to this end, Jack was acquiring sys-
tematic avoidance of blushing maid
enhood. He grew cynical, dogmatic,
and most fastidious and exacting in
the standard of ideal womanhood he
eventually reared for himself.
Meanwhile Jack was swinging leis-
urely home under the scudding clouds
of the wrathiul March sky with a SEN
sation of actual interest dominating
him. Had the original of the fair
face now reposing in his breast pocket
itself confronted him, the fate of its
many predecessors might have been
hers, but the odd chance which had
thrown it in his way seemed to invest
it with n sort Of proprietary interest !;
and, arriving at his own door and let
ting himself in, our erring hero made
his way up to his rather sumptuous
rooms and struck light He set the
photograph on carved easel; he
lighted tiny lamp beside it which
diflused a soft rose color through the
room; he took down some clingino
folds of embroidered amber silk and
draped them about the soiled edges.
He sat while in absorbed contempIa-
ton of the pure young face that
shone out like white star from its
clouds of rose and amber. Then he
rose and gravely placed before it a
Parian group of adoring angels.
No, prosperity had not spoiled her !;
the sweet, womanly face with its
steadfast eyes looked gravely past Its
aesthetic surroundings with the
changeless serenity of n. Madonna
above her suppliants, and transfxed
jacks gaze with her own. The tender
curves of her lips were full of sweet
womanly meanings; the eyes under
the shadowy hair-soIt, dreamy, starry
eyes-held untathomed store OF wit,
wisdom, love and pathos; only high,
truthful, unstained soul looked out of
them.
Jack rcse ''She seems to say" he
said meditatively, "'My young friend,
what consummate idiot yon are. q"
And he turned the picture to the wall
1t was about this time that Huyler's
friends began to comment on his sin
gular prediction for that last resort
of entertainers and entertained, the
photograph album, and an odd habit
he had acquired in that connection
that OF occasionally slipping out one
OF the bits of pasteooard and glancing
at its back. In fact, A Stanton Boy
6en, as Jacks longtime acquaintance
Allan BoydeR now signed himself, in
conformity with the fad of the day,
was reused to suspicion not only by
this new freak In his eccentric friend,
but by the frequency with which he
sauntered into Boyden's own photo
graph studio above stairs, and the
diligence with which he inspected the
collections of his own and contem-
porary artists. work. Jack held his
peace, however,, and was not to be
sounded by mere impertinent inquiry,
as A. Stanton Boyden well knew, and
some weeks han elapsed since the cpl
sode with which our tale opens, when
the door Of Huyler's studio was one
day flung wide open and the steps OF
A. Stanton we're arrested as he was
about mounting the stairway leading
to his own apartments.
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