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Rd WILD MARGARET,
‘*It is in my writing-room,’’ said Prince Rivani.
‘Oh, that isa pity! You should not deprive the world
of a sight of its great treasures, mon price.”
‘You still think as highly of Miss Leslie’s picture, then,
signor?’’ asked a gentleman. ,
‘As highly ?—imore!” said the old man, turning promptly. —
‘‘The more I see of it, the greater my astonishment grows
mate woman so young could have painted a picture so
old.
‘* So old?” .
‘“Yes. We measure the age of a picture by the age of
the thought it contains. There is a lifetime of suffering,
and love, and despair in the face of the girl on that rock.
Miss Leslie must have felt all that—ay, every heart-pang
of it—before she could have painted it. It is—I repeat my
-verdict—a marvelous picture! She will, I trust, live
to paint many other great ones; but never one that will go
gtraighter to the heart than this.”’
** Where is Miss Leslie now?” asked another gentleman.
‘One sees and hears nothing of her.” .
** Because you do not go where she goes, signor. Miss
Leslie is neverseen in the promenade; you may drink your
afternoon tea in all the palaces of Naples and not meet
with her. But I venture to prophesy that if you will
penetrate the slumsof the city, the fever haunts, in which |
our poorest of the poor are awaiting the peace bringer,
Death, you will find the great artist in their midst.”
There was silence fora moment. .
‘* Miss Leslie isa—philanthropist, then?” said the gentle
man.
_ ‘She is a ministering angel,” responded Signor Alfero,
simply. . ;
The prince stood by, white to the lips. -
‘‘What time she can spare from her work—and she
works as hard as any seamstress in the city!—she spends
amongst the poor. There is not a beggar in our streets
who does not know her; not a blind man whose ears do
not eagerly greet her footfall; not a sick child whose face
does not ‘lighten’ at the sight of her .smile. - She is_an
artist—and an angel!” and the old man’s lips quivered.
As if he could bear it no longer, the prince stood upright -
and approached Blair, his face white and set with the
_ effort to suppress his thirst for vengeance.
_'* Referring to our discussion, Lord Ferrers,”’ he said sig-
nificantly, ‘‘are you still of opinion that we Italians have
taken but a low place in the scale of nations?’ :
Blair started and looked up at him in surprise, then, un-
derstanding that the prince was going to make pretense of
@ quarrel, he replied:
/;
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