A Girl of the Commune

s friends would have had difficulty in picturing him as engaged in country pursuits. Indeed, Cuthbert Hartington, in a scarlet

possessed it to an eminent degree. There was a careless ease in his manner, an unconscious picturesqueness in his poses, a turn, that would

arrow. He had maintained a fair place in his forms as he moved up in the school, but had done so rather from natural ability than from study. He had never been in the eleven, although it was the general opinion he would have certainly had a place in it had he chosen to play regularly. As he sauntered through Harrow so he sauntered through Cambridge; keeping

uld obtain at the University he lacked the application and industry to convert the sketches into finished paintings. His vacations were spent chiefly on the Continent, for his life a

nd though Cuthbert made an effort to take an interest in field sports and farming, it was not long before his father himself told him that as it was evident the life was altogether

atural disposition. Of course you will come down here sometimes, and at any rate I shall be happier in knowing that you are living your own life and

income than settle down here. I have really tried hard to get to like things that you do. I feel it would have been better if I had always stayed here and h

y number of unfinished paintings; but he was fastidious over his own work and unable from want of knowledge of technique to carry out his ideas, and the canvases were one after another thrown aside in disgust. His friends upbraided him bitterly with his want of application, not altogether without effect; he took their remonstrances in perfect good temper, but without making

grumbled and laughed at his presumption, but were ready to acknowledge the justice of his criticism. He had an excellent eye for color and effect and for the contrast of light

the one drawback to the contentment of his life that he had been unable to carry out the Squire's wishes

deserve, and have neither to feed on husks nor to tend swine; but though the fatt

n allowance just sufficient to have kept you on bread and butter, and have left you to provide everything else for yourself; then you would have been an artist, sir, and would have made a big name for yourself. You would have had no occasion to waste your time in painting pot-boilers, but could have devoted you

he was accustomed to such tirades, and was

ignation at pictures being hung generally voted to be daubs, while others that had been considered among the studios as certain of acceptance, had been rejected. Two or three of

ven for loafing on the rocks, and I hate London when it's full. I will go for a fortnight anyhow," and so with Wilson an

xed upon a subject, and setting up his easel and camp-stool began work on the morning after his arrival. He had been engaged but a few hours when two young ladies came along. They stopped clo

gton? Who would have tho

e her for a moment

said Miss Brander, but having known you so long as Mary Brander, the name slipped out. It must have been three ye

was at Girton with me. Anna, this is Mr. Cuthbert Hartington. Mr. Hart

wed and Cuthbert

ten used to come into our house, while Mr. Hartington was going into business matters with my father, and generally amused himself by teasing me

ry discreet damsel when I last saw you, and I felt rather afraid of you. I k

on't remember it. I think I wa

anged much in that respect,

said, sturdily, "it would be much better if we al

hand would be against his neighbor. I do not say that people should say what they do not think, but I am sure that the world would not be so pleasant as it is by a long way i

case there would be fewer idiotic books written and fewer men

uy either books or paintings, and that there are plenty of people who buy the idiotic

eluctantly, "but so much the wo

Eliot are the exception-and so are artists like Millais and Landseer, but wh

e they do, Mr. Hartington; but they do not fulfil what ought to be their purp

ok his

to gratify those tastes. If a man is happy and contented with the street he lives in, the house he inhabits, the pictures on his walls, and the books he gets from a library, is he better off when you teach hi

gton," Miss Treadwyn said, looking at the sketc

er off if I had not, for then I should be contented with doing things like th

meliora video, and so on, Mr

will not deny that the quotation exactly hits my case. I can only plead that nature, which gave me the love for art, did not give me the amount of energy and the cap

" Anna Treadwyn said. "It must add immensely to the pleasure of travel

have quite a pile of portfolios by whose aid I can travel over the ground again and recall not o

k we had better be

l be very pleased if you will call upon us at Porthalloc. There is a glorious view from the

low me to waive ceremony, I will come up some evening after dinner; in the meantime may I say that I shall always be found somewhere along the shore,

be here every day; the sea is new to Ma

Mary," she went on, as

be to raise their own sex to the level of man, but generally to urge men to higher aims, and yet because I have very

hings in rather a different light. I quite agree with our theories and I hope to live up to them, as far as I can, but it seems to me much easier to put the theories into practice in a general way than in indivi

nto David, tho

saying that at present you have scar

ander l

and though I had forgotten it, I remember I did tell him my mind last time I saw him. You see his father is a dear old man, quite the beau-ideal of a country squire, and there he is all alone in his big house while his son

are yourself doing so without, I fancy, much deference to your parents' opinions, and besides I have heard you many a time rail against the soullessness of the conversation

et, what I believe to be a great and necessary aim before me. I don't pretend that there is any sacrifice in it, on the contrary it is a source of pleas

that, my dear, we only differ in

said to heart," Mary replied serenely, "and if he

ly showed no signs of taking the matter t

t up her case, I suppose. She has grown very pretty. She was very pretty as a child, though of course last time I saw her she was at the gawky age. She is certainly turning the tables on me, and she hit me hard with that stale old Latin quotation. I must admit it was wonderfully apt. She has a g

ed color and going off abruptly. It was Cuthbert's chief amusement to draw her out on her favorite subject, and although over and over again she told herself angrily that she would not discuss it with him, she never could resist falling into the snares C

amused her greatly to see her entangled in the dilemma, into which Cuthbert led her, occasionally completely posing her by his laughing objections. Of an evening Cuthbert often went up to Porthalloc, where he was warmly welcomed by Anna's mother, whose heart he won by the gentle and deferential manner that rendered him universally po

home, to be a good wife and a good mother, and to be content with the position God has assigned to her as being her right and proper one. However, I have always hoped and believed that she would grow out of her new-fangled ideas, which I am bound to say she never carried to the extreme that her friend does. The fact that I am somewhat of an invalid and that it is alt

get better it will be by gradual progress and not by individual effort. There is much that is very true in Miss Brander's views that things might be better than they are, it is only with her idea that she has a mission to set them right that I quarrel. Earnestness is no doubt a good thing, but too much of it is a misfortune rather than an a

subjects, but Cuthbert declined to accompany them, declaring that he found himself perfectly comfor

ays later, "you and Mr. Hartington remi

n, Anna?" Mary a

ed, demurely, "except that you

ut we certainly shall not arrive at the

ightful men that she ever met. He is heir to a good estate, and unless I am greatly mistaken, the idea has occurred to him if not to you

at many years, and then only to a man who will see life as I do, become my co-worker and allow me my independence. Mr. Hartington is the last man I should choose; he has no aim or purpose whatever, and he would ruin my life as well as

hing sight of Mary Brander in the garden by herself, joined her there and astoni

s really a mission in life. Its object is not precisely that which you have set yourself, but it is closely allied to

that you think woman's mission is to marry?" she

your case and mine. I do not say that you might not do something towards adding to the happiness of mankind, but mankind are

y in earnest,

e, more earnestly certainly than I have ever desired anything before, that you should be my wife. I know that y

fore even commencing them. I like you very much, Cuthbert, though I disapprove of you as much as I thought you disapproved of me; but if ever I do marry, and I hope I shall never be weak enough to do so, it must be to someone who has the same views of li

ot been that you are on the point of going abroad for two years. And two years is a long time to wait when one feels that one's chance is very small at the end of that time. Well, it is of no use saying anything more about it. I may as well say good-bye at once, for I shall pack up and go. Good-bye, dear; I hope that you are wrong, and that some day you will make s

s has all been very silly, and I hope that by the tim

somewhat, that he had been really in earnest for once in his life, and she added, "I do hope we sha

nod, and then dropping her

. He must have known that even if I had not determined as I have done to devote myself to our cause, he was the last sort of man I should ever have thought of mar

Anna Treadwyn joine

ight after

o you mean to say t

way, and now he is leaving by this afternoon's coach; besides, although he laughed and talked

such a question? It was the most pe

you will never be s

, to think that I should be ready to give up all my plans in life, the first time I am asked, and that by a gentleman who has not the