Chapter 11.

Otago Witness, Issue 1188, 5 September 1874, Page 20

Chapter 11.

Two days after the accident, Edward Graysbrook sat painting his picture with all his heart and life. No model had sat to him, yet the face and figure of Titania were accomplished works of art. To represent a pair of sparkling eyes, two pouting lips, a dimpling smile, and a shock of jetty hair, is to a clever artist by no means an impossible task ; nevertheless, that face had been painted and repainted, a shade darker here, and a trifle lighter there, until it bore an expression that our would-be R. A. had carried in his heart since he quitted The Cedars. A sound of wheels, a rap at the door, and Cyrus Hodges appeared on the scene. " Ah ! my dear boy, glad to find you in. I've come to thank you in a more becoming way than I had time for the other night for your pluck and presence of mind in°saving my child's life. Tut, tut ! no answering me. Damme, sir, you did save it, and I'm not the sort of man to forget a claim of that kind. Now, let us see. What do you call that picture ? Titania, eh? Hum-m-m! I know the face. Why, yes, it's surely Lucy Graham, my wife's niece. Ah ! you dog. Well, you might have taken a worse model. Have you sold it?" " Not yet," said Ned. "Then I'll have it. Come, we won't haggle over it. I dare say my price will suit you. What did you get for your goldmedal picture 1" " A hundred and fifty pounds." "Then I'll double it/ said Hodges, taking out his cheque-book. "By Jove, though, that's very pretty," he continued, aB his eye caught sight of a sketch in a corner of the room. "Have you any more like it?" "I have some in this portfolio," answered Ned. " Dear me ! that's a charming little bit ; and this, too. Well, I shall take these with me in my cab, if you don't object." Ned was only too happy, of course. . "By the way, I hope you will come and visit us at Twickenham. Mrs. Hodges particularly wishes it. Sundays we are always at home. Lunch at two, dinner at seven. I shall expect you next Sunday. Good-bye; and, above all things, don't hurry ' Titania.' I think we shall make you if she's a success." And with the portfolio of sketches under his arm, the great picture-dealer blustered out of the room into his cab, and back into town. Ned took up the cheque. Three hundred and fifty pounds ! A capital man of business was Cyrus Hodges. Profuse in the number and quality of his dinners to such acquaintances as were useful to him, lavish almost to extravagance on his horses, hia liveries, his house, and his wife, he rarely ever, except by mistake) paid a farthing over' the price at which he could see fifty per cent, likely to return to him. One of his most liberal customers was the Duke of St., Mawes, who had bought, however, Graysbrook'u gold-medal picture from another dealer. His Grace was a judge, and recognising germs of genius in the work, had bought up many other smaller pictures and sketches from the same hand. Q.E.D. Cyrus had stolen a march upon the noble duke. So Ned on the following Sunday went down to Twickenham, and was received by Cyrus with much empressement, introduced to a number of painters, journalists, and art-critics, and made much of. Mra. Hodges was quietly gracious. Of course she sweetly thanked him for his great service ; but then he was an artist, and most artists are generally so queer. His coat was not cut by Poole •; Lincoln and Bennett had no account against him. He might have talent, but he Bpake never a pretty nothing in her ear ; he wore moustaches, but they lacked the cavalry twirl ; of the latest fashionable scandal he could explain nothing. Sum total of his delinquencies, he was too thorough for Mrs. Cyrus, and looked too seriously on his life and on his art. With Lucy Graham, theae delinquencies appeared attractions. Though fond of a fast deux-temps, and a subseqxtent chatter with her partner in the conservatory, she was not frivolous ; though she possessed a woman's share of coquetry, she was no flirt ; though her eyes were bright and sparkling as diamond flashes, though her lashes were dark and long, she was free from conceit and affectation — a rather remarkable trait nowadays, but to be accounted for, perhaps, by her having an object in life, and that object not matri mony. Yes Lucy had an object, and that ob-

ject was excellence in music. Possessed of a contralto voice and a fine ear, practice and professors had made her a star of the drawing-room ; and Ned, seated next to herthatday at dinner and strolling through the grounds in the cool of the evening, found in her, if not an affinity, at all events sympathy, and the fellow-feeling of an artist. "By-the-by, Grayabrook," said Hodges, as our friend was bidding his host adieu, " would it be worth your while to come down here and give my little girl a few lessons in painting ? You might take some rooms down here for the rest of the summer ; fresh air will not hurt the picture, and I am anxious to see how 'Titania' progresses. Good-bye. Think of it." The offer was duly considered, and a week later Edward Graysbrook was located in a pretty cottage a few minutes' walk from the river and the Cedars. In after years, when the artist was broiling under a Palestine sun, or cooling under an Andalusian archway, the remembrance of the summer of '65 was a celestial dream. As his work became a labour of love, so did love become part of his work as he sat painting before his easel, the sun shining on his canvas and glorifying the face of the girl he loved. So passed the siuqmer away. Ned got through much work, listened every day to Lucy's voice, and constantly rowed her and her little cousins up the river. After these excursions sleep was coy, and Ned would build castles. A man of sense and chivalry, however, he forbore to declare his love. "No, I cannot ask her to share my poverty. Some day — who knows ]— I might be a distinguished and wealthy man ; and then — ah ! and then she will be probably married to some one else. -No, many a man has his cross to bear ; and, help me, Heaven, I will bear mine." Autumn came, and Mrs. Hodges and family went to Brighton, Ned back to St. John's Wood. Christmas passed, and Easter foxmd our artist still hard at work. At length the day arrived, and Ned's four pictures were on show at his studio. Many fashionable ladies and gentlemen found their way that Monday to St. John's Wood by means of the circular sent out by Hodges. Remarks were various. "Absolutely charming," quoth a middleaged lady. <( Awfully nice," ivom a charmer of eighteen. " What lovely eyes !" murmured a third. " Heavenly" answered a fourth. "Awfully funny, those little devils," remarked a young Coldstreamer. " The frame, it strikes me, is the higher work of art," snapped sotto voce a disappointed painter, now art-critic. "Chiaroscuro altogether defective," from an unsuccessful amateur. " To my mind, my deal*, it's shocking," whispered a contributor to the ," Victoria Magazine " in spectacles. " Art can be better exemplified than by a lack of drapery." So wags the world's verdict. Praiae — aloud ; criticism — in whisper ; abuse — between the teeth. The pictures were sent in, and Graysbrook took a few days' holiday. On 1 Titania," for more reasons than one, he pinned his faith ; and his faith was strong. Returned to town, he passed through Trafalgar Square, and strolled into the Academy to see the book of rejected pictures. Heavens ! what did he see ? Three of his paintings hung, one rejected, and that one "Titania." He sprang into a hansom and drove to Bond Street. Hodges was busy writing. "Ah ! I see you have heard, then, my boy. Well, I consider it the moßt remarkable piece of good luck." " Good luck V cried Ned. " Exactly," returned Hodges. " Now, you wait, and see what I'll do. I said that picture should make you, and, damme, it shall."