The Fortunes of Oliver HornSmith, Francis Hopkinson
General
The Fortunes of Oliver Horn
Smith, Francis Hopkinson
Baltimore (Md.) -- Fiction; Bildungsromans; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Painters -- Fiction; Young men -- Fiction
virtue of that spirit of camaraderie which a common pursuit develops,
"one of us" in spirit as well as in occupation.
Fred had described it all to Oliver, and every night when Oliver came
in from the hall, his eyes had wandered over the group of students in
the hope of seeing the strange person. A girl studying art, or anything
else for that matter, seemed to him to be as incongruous as for a boy
to learn dress-making or for a woman to open a barber-shop. He knew her
type, he said to himself: she would be thin and awkward, with an
aggressive voice that would jar on the stillness of the room. And she
would believe in the doctrines of Elizabeth Cady Stanton--a name never
mentioned by his mother except apologetically and in a low voice--and
when she became older she would address meetings and become conspicuous
in church and have her name printed in the daily papers.
Our hero's mind was intent upon these phases of character always to be
found, of course, in a girl who would unsex herself to the extent that
Miss Grant had done, when one night a rich, full, well-modulated voice
sounding over his shoulder said:
"Excuse me, but Mother Mulligan tells me that you are Mr. Horn, Fred
Stone's friend. I want to thank you for taking care of my poor Juno. It
was very good of you. I am Margaret Grant."
She had approached him without his seeing her. He turned quickly to
accost her and immediately lost so much of his breath that he could
only stammer his thanks, and the hope that Juno still enjoyed the best
of health. But the deep-brown eyes did not waver after acknowledging
his reply, nor did the smile about the mouth relax.
"And I'm so glad you've come at last," she went on. "Fred has told me
how you wanted to draw and couldn't. I know something myself of what it
is to hunger after a thing and not get it."
He was on his feet now, the bit of charcoal still between his fingers,
his shirt-cuff rolled back to give his hand more freedom. His senses
were coming back, too, and there was buoyancy as well as youth in his
face.
"Yes, I do love it," said Oliver, and his eyes wandered over her
wonderful hair that looked like brown gold illumined by slants of
sunshine, and then rested for an instant on her eyes. "I drew with old
Mr. Crocker at home, but we only had one cast, just the head of the
Milo, and I was the only pupil. Here everything helps me. What are you
at work on, Miss Grant?"
"I'm doing the Milo, too; my seat is right in front of yours. Oh! what
a good beginning," and she bent over his drawing-board. "Why, this
can't be your first week," and she scanned it closely. "One minute--a
little too full under the chin, isn't it?" She picked up a piece of
chalk, and pointed to the shaded lines, looking first with half-closed
eyes at the full-sized cast before them, and then at the drawing.
"Yes, I think you're right," said Oliver, studying the cast also with
half-closed eyes. "How will that do?" and he smudged the shadow with
his finger-tip.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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