El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-05-31
The Pastel


r "a of where to begin or where to
lV1 end when she came up into the
immense garnet Of the large house near
Meaux which she had inherited from
Good Loard. what am I to do with
all that trash she exclaimed, and tull
Of despair she looked at the heaps OF
broken armchairs, old coucnes WIN
torn covers. cracked chinaware, legIess
chairs and old trunks, piled almost 10
the roof.
For perhaps a century or more every
thing that was broken IN the house
had been thrown up there quite ac-
cidentauy Nine de LOurdy moved an
old armchair, looked at her hand ana
was about to push the chair back Wnen
something dropped with a noise CT
breaking glass.
Nine. de Lourdy stopped and picked
up an old painting She could not see
what it was right away. as II was
covered with a thick layer Of dust
but when she had taken il TO the WIN
dow and blown the dust away she saw
1t was a pastel in a carved frame
portrait of a young woman Win
powdered hair and a single curl hang
ing loose over her left shoulder and
wearing a very low necked dress
This is not at all bad she said
1T must be one of my female relations
I viii have it hung in my salon
1t wa shung and those who saw ~
said it was very pretty, but paid no
particular attention to it.
Nine de LOurdy rather liked the
dreaming eyes Of the picture and the
hooking smile about the lips and
thought it q family portrait, executed
probably by some local artist
Years passed Nine de LOurdy, who
was a widow and devoted herself en-
tirely to her little granddaughter, lived
nearly all year in the house she had
inherited The pastel was hanging on
the parlor wall, but nobody ever looked
at it.
One day. however. an old friend came
to visit Nine de LOurdy, who had not
seen him for many years. as he had
been travelling most of the time.
When she came into the parlOr she
. found him standing in front Of the
pastel quite enraptured.
1t is quite pretty, isn't it," she said.
'Pretty!' he exclaimed. 1T is Won
dcrtul- Don't you know il is a LatOur,
a genuine LatOur2"
"A LatOur2'
Yes, 1t is a Latour and worth at
the very least two hundred thousand
francs"
Two hundred thousand francs. You
must be mad
Then ask an expert"
Nine de LOurdy did not believe him.
A painting that she had found among
a heap Of rubbish should be worth
fortune 1t was absurd.
She did however, send for an expert,
who declared IL TO be a genuine LatOur
and worth 200, 900 francs easily.
Nine. de LOurdy was not rich, so II
was no wonder that she was Overjoyed,
not because she loved money but be-
cause she then had something valuable
to give her granddaughter
The famous painting was to be her
wedding present to Suzanne and its
value would increase every year.
Perhaps there were other treasures
among the rubbish. and the attic was
carefully searched and 4 few more val
liable articles were found and sold 20
dealers, but there were no more paint
ings.
Nine. de Lourdy never grew tired
looking at the pastel and always told
how she had come near letting il lie
on the floor. because ii was so dusty,
but that fortunately she had known
enough about paintings to look at II
more closely.
In the meantime the Paris papers
heard about the painting and from all
over France art lovers came TO look
at II and admire il.
Nine de LOurdy had it fastened to
the wall very securely and always went
along. when visitors came to see it.
Ihe thought that somebody might rob
her Of il became a fixed idea with her
and made her restless.
When Mona Lisa was stolen from
the Louvre she bought a couple Of
bloOdhOunds, had new locks put on all
the doors and steel shutters outside
every window in the house.
At last she ordered the painting hung
r IN AeE bedroom IN q KIND or safe OulLC
into the wall
The fear of losing it ruined her
health and when Suzanne at last be-
came engaged and had received the
painting as a gift. Nine. de LOurdy
took TO her bed, from which she never
arose.
Suzanne's fiance was a rich young
man who greatly admired the picture
Tor It's own sake, but he did not think I
II genuine LatOur- He believed IL /
have been painted by HOuin, a pupil :
Of Latour.
One day when he was sitting in the |
sickroOm with Suzanne and the nurse, /
he took the picture down, removed /
the wooden back and underneath he 4
found HOuin's signature. He called z
Suzanne and showed il to her.
Just at that moment Nine de LOurdy I
opened her eyes and when she saw
the two young people examining the /
picture, she was seized with a sud
den fear. and asked in a trembling
voice; What is the matter. Suzanne2'' {
The young girl with wonderful pres |
ence Of mind, smiled and replied:
Imagine, grandmother, Lucien has I
found LatOurs signature on the pic I
ture and says that il is now worth at 4
least 400, 900 francs"
-Four hundred thousand francs"
whispered the old lady with a happy 4
smile
The same evening she died with the /
painting standing on a chair next to 4
her bed