The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1909-12-25
Often He Read These Articles to Her
as She Sat at Work.

eyes shared in the metamorphosis-
they lost their dreamy, pleading look
and became alert, laughing, and full
| of happiness and strange power that
seemed no longer to ask, but to COM
mand help and sympathy from all
who met their glance.
Something of this change Derring
himself recognized. He knew that he
was alive, glowing in every fiber; but
he was less analytic in his happiness
than in his misery; he did not see
that his overlooking vitality commun-
icated itself to everyone with whom
he came in contact. 1t was only when
some one spoke of the change that he
knew that it was being marked. He
exulted in his heart that no one
guessed the cause
He was settled down and working
with a vigor of which he had not
dreamed himself capable. Everything
bent before him. He felt within him.
self power to conquer the world
should it stand in his way. Sometimes
he clenched his hands and stretched
his arms to their fullest to- give outlet
to the play impulse that could not OK.
haust itself in work.
In his inner life, too, q change, less
perceptible. but no less real, was tax.
ing place. Sight and hearing were
opened to new beauty. Music had
become to him medium of soul
speech; and the sordid city streets,
with their overhanging clouds Of
smoke, started to picturesque life and
beauty.
A long archway with q slant Of sun.
shine at the farther end-an Italian
woman stealing into the shadow, q
huge bundle on her back and colored
kerchief about her head-would stir
his pulses like an old painting The
unsightly process Of building, with its
debris Of mortar, bricks, and lath,
gained artistic value as his eyes took
In the grouping Of the men at work
| around the mortar-beds-the soft
| gray-white Of the mortar, the dull red,
blue or orange Of the shirts upon the
supple or stolid figures of the men,
with the play of muscle beneath.
Sometimes it was single figure, that
might have stepped from Ram.
brandt canvas, appearing for minute
and disappearing in the shifting
crowd. Always, everywhere. there
was beauty-until Derring, seeing 1t
all, longed at times to relieve his
overcharged senses by loud cry-so
wonderful, so overpowering, had the
beauty of the world become.
Undoubtedly much Of this quicken.
ed insight was due to the thought of
Helen, who was never for a moment
absent from his mind. Whatever
work was engaging his hand or brain,
deep below it all was consciousness
Of her existence, like second ego,
more inspiring than his own PERSONAL
ty. It seemed to give him a sixth
sense by which he perceived the beau.
tiful-until Helen gave up in dee aair
the attempt to transfer to canvas. all
that he brought to her notice.
It became common sight for her
sketching stool to be set up in aume
sheltered corner Of the busiest part
| Of the city. Derring, who had dre,. led
the experiment, saw, with thrill, that
the quiet power Of her personality
that so rested and soothed him vas
felt here. The crowd either pasxed
her by or stopped for a moment to
look with respectful curiosity as the
work grew under her hand. Sometimes
a mason filled her water-can or car.
penter paused for a moment in his
uorL IN odivcf hor 80.
the Chicago spirit-laissez faire, and
help when you can. Except for the
dust and rattle Of the street she was
as unmolested as in her quiet studio