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THE PORTRAIT. 393
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
?- ¦ Chapter Ix.
" Now _tliat slie needs me , I will go at once , " said the faithful creature . " OhMiss EmilI knew how it would be . Her second
trial is no better , than her y , first . Why was she not warned ? Whdid she choose the world rather than the convent ?"
" y Why , indeed ! " I thought , but said nothing . Sarah went , and I never saw her again . I heard that she accompanied her mistress
abroad . Whether Cleveland went with them I knew not . Mr . Martyn seemed never to recover from the surprise caused
him by finding that , instead of a lovely young Italian girl—how the report of the foreign bride had arisen we never knew—his
favorite had married a rich widow older than himself . From the hour of that discoverythe artist did not stand so hih in the
estimation of his patron , althoug , h with the Properzia in g ibis possession , — -another surprise why it was not asked for—he never failed to
extol him as the first of English painters . Even froin my best of iriends , Mrs . Martyn , I kept the secret of Cleveland , and defended
him from the false charge of having married for money , that basest of motives .
The world at large is famed for passing unjust judgments , and even our friends at times wrongfully interpret our actions . So it
fared with Cleveland , and it was to little purpose I attempted his justification . The facts , as they were called , were held up in
opposition to all I could argue . Then came unpleasant rumors , that he and his rich wife were unsuited to each other ; in shortthat
, they did not agree , and _were seldom , if ever , in the same place at the same time . These floating fragments of gossip came across
me when on a visit to Russell Square ; for although I had pitched tent near Carringtonon the slope of a hill whence afar
stretching my landscape greeted my , sight , yet every year I spent some weeks in London .
If the inflexibly honorable _Clereland failed in being able to give his wife the entire devotion her nature demanded , he failed
involuntarily ; and had she been content to accept a tranquil affection , she niig | ht , in course of time , have obtained it and have been at
peace . Surely , during ten years , much might have heen effected by prudence and patience , those best of guardian angels . of time
Ten years then had been dissolved in the great ocean . -Cleveland and his wife were—I knew not where . I was at Carrington happyand busy with my picturesmy friendsmy small but
merry household , , my garden , and my beautiful , flowers , . It was autumn—brilliant autumn , Sultana of the seasons , who
comes , not with the airy step of spring , but sits in regal splendor ; 3 ier deep green robe , fringed with burnished gold , her brow
encircled with vines , her lap full of summer ' s riches . The yellow . grain gathered waved , and no the longer earth seemed in the , fields alike . with The the harvest husbandm had an been , to
repose for a brief space . The serene peace of fruition breathed _* a mysterious stillness over the whole landscape ; a profound silence
VOIi . VII . "F _F
The Portrait. 393
THE PORTRAIT . 393
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Aug. 1, 1861, page 393, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01081861/page/33/
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