Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1909-08-13

distinction to be valued like all dlS-
tinctions according to It's rarity.
Giuseppe received her with rev
words ana much humility. His WORKS
spoke for him. She saw there Madoh-
ma eyes and quiet valleys and that
peaceful calm of evening when Coo
walked abroad in the garden. Every
where was faith, tinged by sorrow 10
deeper richness. and poetry ana IN
tuitive comprehension OF those things
beyond that humankind must strive
for. never reaching. A despair or her
own poor reasoning talent seized her
Looking. she understood the man ana
the strange sweet longing OF his couh-
tenance When he unveiled a sketch
of herself tears rose with the inten-
sity of her delight. Unfinished as 1t
was, it was The gem Of the collection.
But the beauty, the exaltatlon Oh II,
were such as she had never possessed
And lie believed her like that! He was
great he was good and-she knew 1t
now with the suddenneSs of q reve-
lation-she loved him.
"You were so like q picture at the
window" he GpolOgized. that | stud
led you. You forgiven
Surely forgive. You-yOu shall
study me again"
ooh, if | might and here. At the
window you hung so far above the
line"
81 shall be on the line hereafter if
you paint me So" And her voice sank
to a reverent whisper.
The artists face flushed. He was a
creature of emotions too natural to
seek concealmcnt. Without troubling
to separate the woman from the con-
cepton lie struggled with an explana-
ton.
"Oh signorina, the years that have
longed for youl | cannot make words
talk. but the picture shall say it all
how | was weak ard wicked and you
| mercifully came to be my salvation;
how you looked at me to lift me out Of
sin. You will let me love you? | am
bold to say it, because ask nothing.
You are so far away that my love can
not offend more than II does the Nir-
GIN
Angelica passed the night with open
eyes examining her happiness The
letters OF n young attorney in Grand
Rapids had been destroyed, they show
ed so commonplace. beside the glory OF
this new passion. Giuseppe should
love her, as he willed. and when the
time came that it was not unmaidenly
to yield-in bliSsful wakefulnesS she
rehearsed the thousand ways that she
might tell him.
The sittings began. The artist work
ed feverishy and said little. Angelica
began to find him more complex than
she had thought.
you are like religion. You make
me sad" he said when asked about
his somberness. But the answer dis
pleased Angelica ard filed her with
premonitions. Was 1t Only black eyed
Floria then, who could make him
smile?
His interest in her personality was
meager, toe for a lover. When she
spoke of Grand Rapids he had muir
mured:
THE rapids-back by the sea where
you live?'
Angelica remarked that she lived far
inland ard in pique added reference
to the attorney whose letters had been
sacrificed.
"One worthy you there? Perhaps
Giuseppe is not. He knows it. After
tine you will return. The great
rapids will swallow you again, and |
shall see You no more" And Angeli
cas- annoyance at the ease with which
she was resigned was only half re-
moved by his conclusion as he touched
his breast:
But | shall have you here always"
Nor would he let her see the pic
ture. "Wait till it Is DONE" he said.
And he painted so diligently that she
grew Jealous. 1t had all his attention;
she none. What was it like? The inn,
keeper, who had seen it, called her
Giuseppe's inspiration. But was she
to be only an inspiration? she looked
at his distracted face. and wave Of
pain and love overspread her own.
Seeking TO make some connection be-
tween hersele and the painting, she
spoke one day of PygmaliOn.
"He kissed his Galatea into life. you
know" Her conviction that Giuseppe
did know absolutely nothing that was
ever classified and put into a book Of
reference led her to add:
"She was the statue he had made,
and after that she became his wife"
The poetry Of this appealed to Gu
seppe, nor was the parallel lost He
looked from her to the picture, then
gave despairing sigh:
"Ah, but l have not painted Gala
tea"
Angelica's animosity toward the pic
ture grew with her love. The day it
was completed and showed to her she
could have cried aloud in despair, even
while she Frustrated herself before the
genius that had produced it. 1t was
q perfect face-no woman's, but an
angels. 1t was the soul Of goodness
looking down on sinners with unscorn-
ing pity. glorious, alluring up sleeps