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186 WILD MARGARET.
while you are at the villa. You know that mamma and.
Ferdy are devoted to art; I think that either. of them
would rather be an artist—a true artist—than Ruler of
Italy, and if you want to do them an honor, why paint a
grand picture, exhibit it at the Salon, and date it from the
Villa Capri.”’ : ;
Life at the villa, Margaret found, was one of routine—
pleasant, easy routine—but still carefully measured out:
and planned. _ ..
At eight the great bell in the campanile rang for rising;
at nine the household gathered in the hall for prayers; at
half-past breakfast was served. At one o’clock the
luncheon bell rang, and at seven the major domo, in his
solemn suit of black, stood at the drawing-room door to
“announce dinner.
_ There was an army of servants, male and female, and
the three ladies were attended with as much state as if the
king were present. -
Between breakfast and dinner Margaret worked.
Art is a jealous mistress; she will not share her shrine |
with any other god, though it be Cupid himself. If Mar-
garet had remained the happy wife of Lord Blair, it 1s 4
question whether any more pictures of worth would have
left her easel, but now, with her great sorrow ever present
with her, she felt that her work alone would bring her
partial forgetfulness. .
And she did work. At first-she thought she would paint
a view of Florence from the hills, and she made a very
fair sketch; but, about a week after her arrival at the
villa she was sitting before a fresh canvas, and, her
thoughts flying back to the past, she, all unwittingly, took
up the charcoal.and began to draw the outline of the Long
Rock at Appleford. It was not until she had sketched in
the whole of the scene that she became conscious of what
she was doing; and when she had so become conscious, she
took up her brush to wipe the marks out. Then she hes!
tated, A desire to paint the scene took possession of her,
and she went on with it, im
She painted ‘the rock, with the sea raging round it, and
the sky threatening it from above; and, as she painted,
the whole scene came back to her, just as a scene which @ ©
novelist has witnessed with his own eyes comes back to
im, -
And as the picture grew, it exerted a fascination for her
-which she could not repel. .
On this she worked day after day, carefully locking UP
the unfinished picture in the mahogany case which the -
prince had supplied with the rest of the furniture of the
studio, . : .
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