| Show boim ANCE how he cournea cour tea di coreed bew york graphic fc john ruskin did a strangely wayward thing v hen he consented to got married ile did a most erratic and to the lie a most inexplicable ho arranged for his ill borca torca ile had a e of the loftiest loft iest ions a m aloin bood that men sometimes read of and about and he looked for his ideal companion one night bb met her in tile drawing room of a london friend who without his knowing if had brought tile young la dy to meet tile eyes of the great r it r J it was a june night he was 35 and she looked like a greek goddess lie was dazzled she was a tall graceful girl of with a face and figure as faultless as one of the statues of old no one ever expected ruskin to fall in love and he lid not she was poor needed a home and its comforts and so they were married their wedded life wa peaceful friend kindly to the highest de gree at thero was not a spark of affection to lighten their existence She admired the great man chobad married and was grateful for the wealth and comfort lie showered on her ile bet as be would lTd the marble m life ike by the chisel T he ro was nothing human about the life they led as husband and wife and abo was a woman who in her heart like all true women laughed at the traditions that made her sex love distant worship one day ruskin brought an artist to paint his picture and the mali wait Al illais and be was a bright cheery band some fellow human I 1 him with a absorbing love for the III and a willingness to tell of his love ile began to paint the portrait of the woma and when he had he was love with his friends wife womanlike she saw it and perhaps she was not full of sorrow and re was the first tribute and re 1 love that had been laid at her feet An dRuskin his aride eyes saw the romance that was weaving around those two lives and his heart realized how little affection he had to lavish on the W 0 m an whom he had made his I 1 f low be had told her the story of his pride mk in her and tile sacrifice he was t 0 k defor ber while she lay prone at his feet is one of the things aich only she or he could tell it is difficult to obtain a in england but john ruskin secured it for her andone bracing morning in the early winter a month alter the divorce was granted ruskin stood beside the couple in one of londona Lon dons quiet churches and saw them made man and wife That wasa good many years ago and since then 31 illais has become rich and famous and is now sir john and his wife is my lady Ill lais the warmest sturdiest diest friend the struggling painter had in his toiling days was the man whose wife he mar iad and through ull the years of icil fals later success and great honor john ruskin has been tile welcome guest and almost daily visitor to the maln and woman whose lives lie so unselfishly crowned with happiness |
