Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1908-09-26
.The Priceless Gift.
.tOriSinal.l ]

lOrisinall
 This is a true historical story, but as 4 I give it ill story form I think it best : to change the names. The main incl dents are given exactly as they oc- cured in the latter half of the eight eenth century
 Alvin Marston, cabinetnlaker, had Z a son, John, whom the father was < bringing up in his business. But the x young man was of very different tex x ture from that of builder of furni- s@ ture. He was of an ideal dreamy na- x ture and instead of attending to his @ duties spent his time in making li,te .$ sketches Was there a clean. smooth < board or an unpublished desk in the @ shop there was sure to be pencil ~ drawing on it which could at once be N recognized as likeness of some of the s workmen. Alvin Marston saw some Of v them and was pleased with them. He #Vas more pleased when he learned ..&that his son had made them and,; re- #linquishing his design of teaching the 5@ boy, a trade, put him in a way to take yNdra Ming lessons. The student improv-
 Ned rapidly, showing sufficient talent to
 Hwarrant becoming professional artist
 Then he fell ill.,
 sM There being no one in the family to Snurse him, country girl was called a&in for the purpose. That was long g@before trained nurses were thought of ss&9sMary Reyes was not made attractive s#by the uniform that now decorates the 6a haa If fo yuiv l,, a#young artist, nor had she mental en- &dowments above her station She was s&a plain country girl, nothing more s%But John Marston was imaginative s&He saw her moving about the room % %ministering to his comfort, and of the % Commonplace figure he made Venus, Awhile the ordinary face in his eyes be- Mcame paragon of sweetness.
 N The invalid recovered and married M Mary Reyes. He lived with her sev- # eral years and had children by her N Had it not been for his talents doubt less there would be no especial story in N his life. It was only too evident that he was born for a higher life than the N one he was leading. Hi pictures eX- M cited the admiration of critics, and the younss man grew ambitious One day he said gondby to his wife and chill dren to go to l-onl.oa to study art. He ca not rafy"n to them for more than thirty years
 6 IT cabinetmaker's son became a grea 2r'ist. h portrait painting he 1JJNas F2e only rival to the celebrated klSir Joshua Reynolds. lis nane, his fame, his praise. were on every lip. He was invited into the houses of the mo- bility and was paid enormous sums for painting their portraits.
 Why did he never return to his fam fly? Who knows? Possibly before he left home the beauties he had himself the ordinary woman, neither endowed l with beauty of person nor of mind. Perhaps the scales were removed from his eyes by visions of the women of the capital. One of these after he be- came famous wove about him a spell She had beautiful body and cor rupt soul. There was the same imag- inatiye process ill different form as had moved him in the case of Mary Reyes. Mary had pure spirit, but an ordinary face and figure, on which he had built thing of beauty. On the woman he met in London, beautiful without and rotten within, he built q superstructure that enthralled him. k She was the mistress of the greatest II sailor of nation of sailors. She was pleased to bewitch the famous painter but she laughed at his bewitchment He stretched forth his hand to grasp rose and plucked thorn.
 And now comes something more per of the artists.
 An old man, he returns to the wife
 and family he has neglected for the
 greater part of lifetime. His wife,
 too, has grown old She knows of his
 triumphs and of his desertion of her in r. heart as well as in person. We may
 expect that she will receive him as g
 stranger, that she will reproach him
 with his neglect and that she who had
 the first right to share in his triumphs
 has been denied them, that, if possible.
 they would have been given to others
 others signally unworthy of them
 When the aged invalid rode up to
 her door she went out with open arms
 to receive him. He tottered into the
 house supported by her. She spoke
 no word of reproach. The love he had
 sighted for more than three decades
 was still there for him. As she had { nursed him in his youth she nursed Hhim in his old age.
 Again he saw her ministering to him Not as a youth. in youth herself with
 life before them, but as decrepit old
 man. The dreams they then dreamed
 had been far more than realized, but
 nnt for har and thex could not now