The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1924-09-19

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face. hearing him say, dozen times
a day. that she had given him back
his life; her happy. grateful heart was
only too full. He began to work at
once. and for awhile she worked. too.
But swiftly she saw that her earnest
and clever beginning was as that of
a promising child. There were ten
thousand girls In Paris who could do
what Ellen could do.
Gibbs was a genius, she never doubt
ed 1t, and II was only year or two
after they came to Paris that his world
began TO see 1t, too. He went straight
for that, and for her. And Ellen.
watching other women struggle and
despair. in loneliness and poverty.
/ wondered. with her old. sweet. child
sh surprise. why God had been so
good to her
And presently she had Tommy. and
they were playing at housekeeping in
the tiniest of little lost villages in
Brittany. These were days of sun
shine. while Gibbs. wonderful in
knickerbockers and a paint-smeared
smock. painted. and Yvonne walked
bareheaded to market. and Ellen
played under twisted old trees with
Tommy Tommy had no nurse but his
picturesque little mother now, for FL
len was thrifty, even in Paris, and Ell
len hao spent more than one evening
on the arm of Gibbs chair, working
out the financial end of their problem.
Their money must last until this time
or that time-they must think of the
future.
When Tommy was two years old.
and before the second child was born,
Gibbs painted his wife. They were in
Brittany again, and Ellen, with white
sewing in the lap of a checked blue
gown and figure and face already
caught in the first rising tide of
motherhood, was set against a back
ground of gnarled old grapevines.
The picture was hung In the Salon
des Independents. and Ellen. when her
delicate little girl was a few weeks
old. went to see it. There was a
crowd about it; there was always a
crowd about 1t. 1t was the discussed
picture of the year, but she always
looked at It with little pang at her
heart. She had been so happy In those
sleepy July days in the grape-arbor:
she had thought that the new baby
would be like Tommy, strong and gay
and hungry. And the tiny new thing
who had been named Rose for Gibbs
mother, was so frail. Even while she
was looking at Gibbs picture, his first
success, Ellen's heart was In the little
nursery on Mont Saint Etienne, hang
ing agonized above the little bed |
where Rose Josselyn lay quiet. apa
thetic, half asleep.
The picture, during the winter. |
caused widening circle Of comment |
and admiration, and presently Gibbs |
had his first commission. and was to
paint a boy Of ten, in the trim gray
uniform of military school. and re-
ceive two thousand francs for the pic
ture.
So fame was coming. and fortune
would come close on her heels. Ellen.
sitting by the studio window In the
winter afternoons. and looking out al
the f1uttering snow into which Yvonne
had taken the dancing Tommy. unused
upon the dream that had become the
fact. She had Paris. Gibbs. and Tom
ny--so much more than she had asked
But the silent. apathetic little Rose
was gone from the nursery now. never
70 lie against her mothers heart again
Was that the cost of successive
wondered Success was new. but all.
his constant hunger at her heart was
new. TOO How gady-how gladly |
she would let the one go. If she might
ose the otherl
Gibbs painted three more portraits
he next winter. which made them feel
3ch hut he was working hard and en-
Enthusiastically In the ateler six morn
ngs a week. and neither he nor Ellen
we're Inclined 10 extravaganza. So that
here was no particular incentive to |
eek commissions
And so the exquisite years went ny
nd Tommy was three and then four
nd still the Josselyns lived in their own
appness. shut away from the world.
nd glad to forget It, Ellen's whole
cart was wrapped about her husband
er girlish idealism had never been {
isturbed. True. she knew now that ,
iIbbs was human. She knew now thnt
g could he unreasonable. that he had
FOODS in which she and Tommy and {
vonne must keep even crumpled r
Dseieaf from his path. g
Put he loved her she amused him q
nd pleased his pride. and her happy h
avs with him. that sometimes were c
hose of n daughter and pupil. some Il
mes wide-eyed admiration. sumetimes a
i motherly. were dear to him. He did h
or have 10 ask her II she loved him s
2 was nil her world. u
Suddenly. in the seventh year new %
ote came Into their conversations =
yifhout any premonition thev hogan to Il
a. 80, A