The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1911-04-25

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would not resemble his mother.
Jules was called to Paris on some
private affairs and discovered while
absent from Maria that she had so
far been absorbed into his being that
she could not be dislodged. He re-
| turned to her and asked her to marry
him.
Maria was not only pleased to Sc
cure a husband above her station, but
had been captvated by the artist.
They were married, and Jules, who
now had a wife to support, took her
to Paris with him and devoted him
| self to painting such pictures as he
could sell for small price.
| A son was born to the couple One
day when the boy was about a year
old Jules went into his wife's bed
room and saw her cooling to the child.
who lay in her lap kicking up his
heels and feeling her chin with his
to be the position in which he had
placed the figures in his picture Of the
Madonna and Child"
II have it," he said exultingly.
"Have what?" asked his wife.
Fame, and fame for an artist pro-
duces comfort"
What do you meanr'
Jules ran off to a closet where he
had placed the unfinished picture and
brought it to his wife's room.
"No alteration is needed" he said,
'in the pose of the figures. / have
but to put In that motherly express
sion, copy your boys features and the
work is finished"
He would not permit either the
mother or child to move until he had
had sitting from which, either by
accident or genius, he caught express
sions on both faces that satisfied him
exactly.
Jules did all his work on the pic
ture In his wife's room while she
held her babe on her lap and when
the little fellow was smiling up at his
mother. Every time he touched it he
improved it till at last one day a
friend. looking at 1t, said to him:
st Is perfect. Any touch you give
1t hereafter will mar it and may spoil
it."
Maria took the brush from her hus-
bands hands and playfully forbade
him to touch the picture again.
The Madonna and Child" of Jules
Ferrand was hung that year in the
French salon and produced a sensa-
ton. 1t was bought by an American
Roman Catholic for an altar piece in
church in the United States for $20,-
600. This sum set up the artist very
nicely, and whatever pictures he
painted after that brought a good
price
One thing surprised Jules. When he
took his wife to Paris every one
exclaimed. How beautiful Jules
had not realized her beauty when he
met her. for his heart was full of that
imaginary beauty with which he had
endowed his Clotilde And since it
did not occur to him then it did not
afterward. He had painted her, ideal
iZing her as the mother of Christ. not
as woman OF physical beauty.
When Jules mother died he went
TO his former home to remove what
was valuable and to destroy what he
considered worthless. Many Of his
pictures that had accumulated while
he was studying to be painter he
collected and made a bonfire of them
One Of them he looked at, thinking
he had seen it somewhere before
Taking it to the light. he scrutinized
it more closely.
ugh" he exclaimed. what home
ly woman"
He continued to gaze upon it, and
presently it dawned upon him that it
was the picture he had painted of
Clotilde
He stood looking on the face Of the
woman he had loved as one awakened
from dream-a dream that at one
time had been supremacy happy.
The years had dispelled the Illusion
which he had supposed he was put.
ting on the canvas and had left the
reality. He was shocked. not with
Clotilde or her picture. but with him
self wave of melancholy swept
over him. Then he wrapped the por
trait carefully. took it home with him
and laid 1t reverently in closet It
has since then never seen the light