Omaha daily bee., 1921-08-14

His fame as a portrait painter not firmly
established that the public took any interest in
his health. and had received no warning of his
illness from the English papers which came ir-
regularly, five six. seven days after publica-
ton, to. Campitelo; moreover, as he only wrote
letters when business urged him. | had been
compelled for twelvemonth to content myself
with his general advice: LAS long as you don't
hear from me you may assume that I'm alive
the solicitors will let you know soon enough
when I'm dead"
Even If, for once. he had not spoken iron
icay l felt confident that the announcement
would not have to be made for another 20 years.
Gaunt was a man of my own age-a few months,
more less. but certainly not day older than
As; and. though | thought and more than once
in the last year had told him that he was begin
ming to eat too little and drink too much. his
resilient constitution and his why frame. which
had come unscathed through the war, were
more than a match for the eXcesses to which he
subjected them: and, though I may have
thought, too, that he shut himself up unduly In
his studio. working and smoking with equal fury.
l was not justified in cricizing his habit of life
unless l could suggest a practical alternative
Six months before | had at least saved him
from the cutting of his throat and had persuad-
ed him that he was an artist with future II
he chose to work himself to death his suicide
was at least delayed and might yet be aNcrted
by the deliberate march Of time and the steal
Ing slow steps of forgetfuness.
The solicitors, in a consolatory postscript
suggested that should not have to endure many
days of the English winter, as the estate was
small and the will simple and precise: to his
sister, Mrs. Mountjoy, Marshall was bequeathing
his eXiguous savings, the lease of his Mazda Vale
house. and an almost worthless accumulation OF
tattered books and ramshackle turniture as |
had almost convinced him that he was genius
not yet come into his own and that we must
nurse his reputation, the pictures unfinished or
unsold were confided to me with instructions to
hold or sell, according to the state OF the mar
ket: and. though he did not cite me by name l
could think of no rival claimant under the clause
which empowered the executor in his discretion,
to give tokens of remembrance to any TRENDS
who cared to ask for them.
l reflected as l settled into the train at
Florence, that if the whole of my duties were
likely to be this discreet balancing of claims
between Mrs Mountjoy and her dead brothers
friends l might well have continued to sun my
self in the villa al Campiteno. In his most nor
NAL period which l should call the years from
the Slade school to the outbreak of war, Mar
shall Gaunt had lacked friends because, with his
ironicai detachment, he did not need friends and
even frightened them away; if the propinquities
of a mess and of joint service urged him into
ephemerai intimacies, he made no attempt to
preserve them when the war was over and he
could escape to Mazda Vale or to Campitello;
women, he gravely assured me, he would gladly
have admitted to his life had he had leisure for
them.
The funeral took place the day after my
arrival but the coffin was already sealed and
could take farewell of the white-cheeked
face with the deepset, smolderlng eyes Which
used to turn in certain lights and moods from
brown to golden red. flashing with disconcertins
mischief under their Mephistophelian brows
Mrs. Mountjoy told me that he had allowed MS
beard which he had shaved on joining the army,
to grow again and that this, with the prominent,
narrow cheek bones, restored to his face that un-
.-it1 1nut ,re9
all nv amateur sketches of him seem out OF
drawing She added that he had grown old and
careworn in the year before his death, WIN
threads of silver in the thick black hair on MS
temples and new wrinkles. no longer the puck
erinss of a quick smile round his eyes. lie was
restless in manner she said, and unconcentrated
in expression; would not have been surprised
IL she had substituted wandering ana
haunted"
The truth is Mr. Bandon,' she concluded,
'he never got over the war. TO man OF MS
temperament, sensitive and emotional, 1t must
have been a greater strain than to anyone else
I'm sure you know what mean. And II
not as though he was a boy: Marshall was al
most 40 when he joined the army ana at that
age there's not the same recuperatlVe power
As had come to bury Marshall, not TO
praise him and still less to argue about him; l
saw no purpose in reminding Mrs. MountJoy that
he had declared his age as 81 Tor the purpose
of obtaining commission and that ne had ap-
piled for commission because inns lehpeia
of his forbade him ever to hesitate on the out
skirts of an adventure. Maybe his older sister
had seen so muclf of him in the last weeks that
the latest impression obliterated all that he had
left in earlier years, maybe she was an unthlhk-
ing woman Incapable of giving period lts GATE
and place. if at any time MarShah ''auhl
showed himself emotional and sensitive IT was
in the 19 months between his rehabilitation
and his death; if the quality was there before
it was uncompromisingly repressed that II
played its part only by night attacks and secret
raids from his unconscious mind.
Ibid death come very suddenly: l asked,
as we returned from the cemetery
"He was taken ill TUESDAY and died on
Friday" Mrs. Mountjoy told me.
'It was peaceful, hope?'
Very I'm thankful to say. l don't think he
even knew he was dying: it was all so uneXpect-
ed that he didn't have time to resist"
Again l saw purpose in asking myself
or her whether, granted the time and the warn
ing he would have shown any wish to resist
was he unconscious?" L inquired
"Not until the very end"
"And 1 suppose, if he didn't know he was
dying, he couldn't have left any message or in
structons?'-'
mo. I asked him if he didn't like you to be
sent for, but he didn't want Anyone"
As she, who had attended the deathbed, did
not hint that even in the last moments or de-
lirium he had let fall any phrases that invited
an explanation, did not choose to put the idea
into her head.
THE will, gather, is with the solicitors" l
said, as entered the house. He sent me a
copy when It was drawn it only remains for us
to see If there any codicils later instruc-
tons"
IT don't think So" said Mrs. Mountjoy.
For at least seven years had not stirred
the ubiquitous dust Of the studio; and in a
I,,so N,oI