Mexico Missouri message., 1915-02-04

Heretofore his instructors had held
him rigidly to the limitations Of black
and white but now they took off the
bonds and permitted him the colorful
delight of attempting to express him
self from the palette. It was like per-
hitting a natural poet to leave prose
and play with prosody.
One day Adrienne looked up from
sheaf of his very ereditable landscape
studies to inquire suddenly:
Samson, are you a rich man or a
poor one?"
He laughed. $50 rich" he told her,
that unless can turn some of this
stuff into money within year or two
shall have to go back to hoeing
| corn"
She nodded gravely.
Hasn't it occurred to you" she
demanded, that in a way you are
wasting your gifts? They we're talk
ing about you the other evening-sev-
eral painters. They all said that you
should be doing portraits"
The Kentuckian smiled. His mas
tiers had been telling him the same
thing He had fallen in love with art
through the appeal of the skies and
hills. He had followed its call at the
PROSECUTING of George Lescott, who
painted only landscape Portraiture
seemed a less artistic form of express
sion. He said so.
THAT may all be very true" she
your landscapes and let your por-
traits pay the way. And" she added,
Since l am very vain and moderately
rich, / hereby commission you to
paint me, just as soon as you learn
how"
Farbish had simply dropped out. Bit
by bit the truth of the conspiracy had
leaked, and he knew that his useful
ness was ended and that well-lined
pocketbooks would no longer open to
his profiigate demands.
Sally had started to school. She
had not announced that she meant to
do so, but each day the people of Misery
saw her old sorrel mare making it's
way to and from the general direction
of Stagbone college, and they smiled.
No one knew how Sally's cheeks
famed as she sat alone on Saturdays
and Sundays on the rock at the back
bones rift. She was taking her place,
morbidly sensitive and a woman of
eighteen, among little spindle-shanked
girls in short skirts, and the little
girls were more advanced than she.
But she, too, meant to have 'TaTnin' -
as much of 1t as was necessary to sat
isfy the lover who might never come.
And yet, the "fotched-on" teachers at
the college" thought her the most
voraciOusly ambitious pupil they had
ever had so unfiaggingly did she toll,
and the most remarkably acquisitive,
so fast did she learn. But her studies
had again been interrupted. and Miss
Grover, her teacher, riding over one
day to find out why her prize scholar
had deserted, met in the road an
empty "jolt wagon" followed by a
ragged cortege of mounted men and
women, whose faces were still lugu-
brious with the effort of recent
mourning. Her question elected the
information that they were returning
from the "buryin'" of the Widow Mil
Ter.
Towards the end of that year Sam
| son undertook his portrait of Adri-
enne Lescott The work was nearing
| completion, but it had been agreed
| that the girl herself was not to have
a peep at the canvas until the painter
was ready to unveil it in finished
condition. Often, as she posed, Will
fred Horton idled in the studio with
them, and often George Lescott came
to criticize, and left without criticiz-
ing. The girl was impatient for the
day when she, too, was to see the pic
ture, concerning which the three men
maintained so profound a secrecy. She
knew that Samson was a painter who
analysed with his brush, and that his
picture would show her not only fea-
lures and expression, but the mans
estimate of herself.
do you know" he said one day,
coming out from behind his easel and
studying her, through half-closed eyes,
Il never really began to know you un.
til now? Analysing you-studying you
in this fashion, not by your words, but
by your expression, your pose, the
very unconscious essence of your per
sonality-these things are iIluminat
ing"
Although am not painting you,
she said with a smile, 81 have beer
studying you, too. AS you stand there
before your canvas your own person
ality is revealed-and have not beer
entirely unobservant myself"
And under the X-ray scrutiny o
this profound analysis" he said Will
a laugh. do you like me?''
! Wait and see." she retorted.
I "At all events"-he spoke gravely-