| Show JOAN how ile courted married and was di borcea from his woman A ew york graphic john rusk in did a strangely wayward he confente con I 1 to get married ile did a most erratic and to the public a most in explicable thing when he arranged for his divorce ile bad accepted some of the loftiest loft iest traditions about womanhood that men sometimes read of and talk about and he looked for his ideal companion one night he met her in the drawing room ofa of a london friend who without b a knowin it had brought the young lady to meet the eyes of the great writer it was a ju ne night he was 35 and she looked like a greek god dess he was dazzled she was a tall graceful girl of 19 with a face and figu reas faul tle s as one of the statues of old no one ever ex peeled ruskin to falli tit love and he did not she was poor needed a horns and its comforts and so they weye married their wedded life was peaceful friendly kindly to the highest de gree but chere vas nit a spark of affection to lighten their existence she admired the great man she bad married and A as grateful for the wealth and comfort he showered on her ile worshipped wor shipped her as he would the marble made lifelike life like by the chisel there was nochim human about the life they led a and wife and she was a boulan who in her bea R like all true women laughed at the traditions that made bersee love di aagut worship wor thip one day ruskin brought an artist to paint his wife 1 picture and the man was and lie as a bright cheery and handsome fellow human every inch of him with a great and absorbing love for the beautiful and a willingness to tell of his love he began to paint the portrait of the magnificent woman and when he had finished he was in love with his friends wife IV like she saw it and perhaps be was not ful I 1 of sorrow and reproach it was the first tribute of real manful love that had bee a laid abber feet and ruskin his wide eyes saw the romance that was weaving around those two lives and his uart realized how little affection he bad to lavish on the woman whom he had made his wife how be told her the story of big pride in her and the sacrifice he was to make for her while she lay prone at his feet fit one of the things which only he or she could tell it is difficult to obtain a divorce in england but john ruskin secured it for her and one bracing m orning in the early winter a month after the divorce was grant ed I 1 ruskin stood beside the couple in ne of londona Lon dons quiet churches and saw them made man and wife that was a good many ye a ra ago and since then has become rich and famous and is now sir john and his wife is my lady the warmest sturdiest diest friend the f struggling painter had in his toiling days was the man whose wife be had married and through all the later ireat bonor john ruskin has been tile welcome guest and almost daily visitor to the man and woman whose lives he so unselfishly crowned with happiness |
