Show KM n kwa aay tt FORTUNATE THING by GEORGE MUNSON there she Is the girl in green said gaid john latham unveiling his newly completed painting miss agnes manton uttered uttered a little irrepressible scream why john dear that Is that is perfect she exclaimed only 1 I 1 am sure you have grossly flattered me john not a bit of it my dear protested her fiance you are prettier far than my poor efforts have shown you on the canvas and this picture is going to make my reputation heaven knew ho he needed that it should john was a struggling artist just rising out of the ruck he was twenty nine agnes was only two or chrep abr years younger and they had been engaged for several years A struggling artist has little chance of malting making enough to support a wito wife in london however though it had not been sold bold one of 0 johns pictures had been accepted tor for exhibition by the royal academy the summer before and he had little doubt that this would be j hung perhaps it would attract the notice of a rich purchaser then they could be married how much Is it we said we wanted I 1 dear asked john A thousand pounds it to begin we could do it on five hundred john answered the girl but we agreed that we wanted a a thousand pounds to fit out our house nicely with antique furniture like most poor people john had extravagant aspirations and really start in comfortably and defy the wolf that would be nice agnes answered very well dear I 1 shall insure this athla for a thousand and I 1 shall place that price upon it said john and I 1 wont take a penny less either A month later to hla his delight john received an intimation from the royal I 1 academy to the effect that his picture A was to be placed on exhibition on varnishing day he and miss manton went to look at it both feared that it had been skied but it had not been skied on the contrary it occupied a very prominent position low down next to the door leading from the first to the second salon just the place where it will attract attention exclaimed agnes joyfully I 1 Z t smash ralpl ripi eipl everybody will see it staring at them the moment they come in of at the door the day of the opening of the exhibition was one of fine weather and vast crowds of fashionable and would be fashionable people attended together with a sprinkling who were genuinely interested in art john and agnes inconspicuous among the crowds watched their picture from a near place while pretending to display interest in others hum girl in green Is IB shel she snorted a stout old gentleman girt girl L looks boks green would be a better title to my ay mind I 1 never saw a healthy young woman with that sort ot of complexion pl plex exion tow how delicious whispered agnes la in johna ear squeezing his hand that sort of criticism was too ignorant to ting still stiff when a gentleman with a square beard looking for or all the world yke like a successful banker stopped and said to his companion that girl tn in green Is one ot of the best things here this year they were breathless with happiness for the stout square beard ti oil gentleman was none other than sir Ya valentine lentine sparks one of the greatest of english painters A mild inoffensive looking elderly woman itt in gray overhearing the re bark that had been made stopped in front of the painting and surveyed it critically then she turned to john 1 Is I that a really good painting asked the elderly lady A truly valuable painting that picture madam while not the if nest thing in tie the academy Is wf edly a very fair specimen of the mod err eni english school said john 1 I 1 j happen to know that the author Is g placing a valuation of a thousand 1 pounds founds upon it dear me said the elderly lady girl in ill green how interesting I 1 must really have a better look at it where wre are my glasses she tilled pulled an absurdly large bag S on her muff and tumbled fumbled nervously 8 IU it tor for quite IL a minute before dw he managed to get it open then she ahe pulled from the interior not a pair ot of glasses but a very serviceable meat chopper smash rip hip hip rip the canvas was torn into shreds and long strips hung from rom the frame before john aided by halt half a dozen men in the vicinity could rush forward and at stay sy the work of devastation there screamed the lady transformed all at once into a virapol what you get tor for letting dear mrs starve to death A suffragette screamed an official maneuvering cautiously around her have you got her then let me got at her for about three minutes longer the academy room was filled with a struggling crowd each member of which ism deemed ed supremely anxious to lay hands upon u pon a struggling old lady who and with disheveled clothing was giving as good an account of herself as was possible under the circumstances at last she was placed in the charge of a policeman and conveyed away john stood looking ruefully at her handiwork the painting was waa injured beyond all possibility of repair there were halt a dozen vertical and three or four horizontal slashes in it each extending nearly the whole extent of the picture which had been cut literally into ribbons john dear whispered agnes slipping her hand into his bis she knew the bitterness bitterness in his heart ile he had spent so many weeks trying to create lie her plain little agnes manton as she know knew herself to be into the reproduction of 0 the image that lay enshrined in his heart arid and this was the end slowly they went out of 0 the academy followed by a small sympathetic throng which had guessed tho the tragedy from the likeness between agnes and the woman in the picture ill paint you again agnes he be said do you know somehow I 1 was not quite satisfied with that it nearly as pretty as you are 0 john protested agnes suddenly he brightened up he stopped still in the street agnes what a fortunate thing he exclaimed 1 I know what the trouble was I 1 ought to have painted you as I 1 intend to now in our new house with the antique furniture agnes it lucky I 1 insured the picture tor for a thousand pounds copyright 1914 by W G chapman |