Evening star., 1909-09-04

IHe next IllOTuiilSy anu iIlfihS
mornings and yellow afternoons and sun
twilights found Jane and Rudolph III the
garden, and found Jane wonderfully con-
tent. And Rudolph found the days pos
sessed of special sweetness which he had
almost forgotten that he could ENJOY.
Though in reality Middleton was OF no
more interest 10 him than the tin soldiers
and hobby horses of his life there See'
sentimentally, he invested 1t with asso-
Citations which. sentimentaliy again, he en-
joyed renewing. Moreover. his mother an
exquisite bit of old porcelain, found great
content in staying on In the great house 10
which she had come as bride. After the
pensions and apartments of Paris, Where
she had spent five years to be near Ru-
dolph, whom she seldom saw. however,
her old home filled Ler with delight. II
was beautiful old home. but SO conVeh-
tionally the great house of every village
that one suspected it of being tradition
and not made of mere boards and mortar
Nine Victor herself, walking in It's gar
dens in her white cashmere morning
gowns. was like a tradition, too. And as
his delight in Jane deepened, Rudolph d!d
not speak to his mother of departure 80
their weeks intended stay was lengtheneo.
No wonder that the long days went by
like shadows. No wonder that Nine. We
tor, in her white morning gown, often
walked alone in the garden OF her great
house. No wonder that Judge Hassei.
looking through the blowing curtains ef
his shaded library and seeing the two fig
ures on the path to the sun-dial sighed
and turned back to his book and refused
to remember what had made him sigh.
At last, however, the heat increasing,
Mime. Victor remembered the Apennines,
and the day for their departure was set
Jane heard 1t from Rudolph with no dis
guise of her dread
What shall do then?" she said. What
snail do then?'
They were sitting on the sun-dial bench
in the early evening, and Jane, in her lit
tie white gown, already looked like tho
ghost of the wonderful weeks that had
passed.
You will live on here" said Rudolph,
and the reality of James suffering called
unwonted earnestness to his words, lin
the world of beautiful things that we ha io
believed in. And you will believe in them
still. and 1 will work. and some day"
Rudolph saw the little arc of the new
moon over the naples. His voice broke.
Life was so infinitely sad, he thought,
watching the little moon.
The night of Rudolph arrival in Paris,
Paris claimed him, as of old, for her own.
For poor Rudolph, though he loved beauty,
loved symbols more; and after six months
fiery enough labor in an atelier, where he
fattened upon praise and called sharp
criticism envy and fattened anyway, he
went the way of many rich young devo-
tee of the outside of things, and slipped
into the idle life of petted dilettante. In
his previous years in Paris he had been
comparatively unknown outside his set of
rich young Americans and pretty French
women, who affected art for the sake of
artfulness. But now he CHANGED to exc
cute charmingly a certain series of fortu-
nate orders, and he originated fad He
did dainty shepherdesses and dancing
shepherds as il he had been in love with
each, and he painted dryads and naiads as
if his brush were made of moss and water
reeds. And at last he fashioned for a
comtesse pomade box with an ouphe and
a sylph on the cover that delighted the
comtesse. and his pretty fame began.
Thereafter he was seen often at the
Salon in the company of some great lady,
to whom he remarked:
"Ah, yes! The Japanese certainly have
the right thought-the fine thought. 1t is
the little things that are worth doing well,
the little ivories, the little porcelains
These great canvases-alas for art, Surely
God delighted rather in fashioning the
back of beetle than in permitting the en-
tire Sahara"
Nine. Victor died within the year of her
return to France, and just before her
death she asked Rudolph about Jane
She never answered my last letter." he
replied plaintively. There was a good
phrase In 1t, too, l remember
You know that her father has died"
said Nine. Victor, gently Now she is
living there alone
Dear little SOUL" said Rudolph, with
real tears; her whole life is the love of
what she calls the fine things Why,
here in Paris clever women use their love
of beauty as a clever mode of attracting
clever men to them. 1t is one of their
methods-like painting or touching up their
hair. They have such poverty of re-
source as to make it their whole life Poo.
little Jane,'
Poor little Jane. Two years after Ru-
uolpi iclt lOF fdFlS Sne gave up her hone.
For two years she went patiently to The
little post Office twice a day-sometimes
in the lonely days just after her fathers
death. she would go oftener-but not un-
til the two years had passed did the light
within her quite die out. Then she did not
blame Rudolph; he was not strong, and he
had been drawn away from her: he wor-
SHIPPED beauty, and some beautiful, soul
less woman had won him away: he had
forgotten the wonderful things that thew
two had loved together
At the end of the two years il chanced
that one of those rumors of exaggerated
greatness which are always drifting back
to a prophets native town reached Mid
dleton. 1t was only that by a visitor in
the town Rudolph had been seen in COM
pany with some very smart people-and
smart" became .'great'-iding about a
gallery of pictures and holding forth to
the admiring group on the bad character
of the exhibit. The incident was nothing;
1t was remembered by the narrator merely
to give himself importance through hav-
ing been in the gallery, too; but Jane
translated 1t to mean all her fears Ru-
dolph had not been won away by the
beautiful, soulless woman whom he had
pictured. He had found James own little
glimmer of understanding of beauty too
feeble in this new flood of radiant exper!-
ence. So Jane reproached herself that
her love had of late led her into idleness
and dreams. She had not read: she had