Artists -- Relations with women -- Fiction; Artists -- United States -- Fiction
Angela changed to her tennis suit and Eugene opened his eyes to her
charms. She was very attractive on the court, quick, flushed, laughing.
And when she laughed she had a charming way of showing her even, small,
white teeth. She quite awakened a feeling of interest--she looked so
dainty and frail. When he saw her afterward in the dark, quiet parlor,
he gathered her to his heart with much of the old ardour. She felt the
quick change of feeling. Marietta was right. Eugene loved gaiety and
color. Although on the way home she had despaired this was much more
promising.
Eugene rarely entered on anything half heartedly. If interested at all
he was greatly interested. He could so yield himself to the glamour of a
situation as to come finally to believe that he was something which he
was not. Thus, now he was beginning to accept this situation as Angela
and Marietta wished he should, and to see her in somewhat the old light.
He overlooked things which in his New York studio, surrounded by the
influences which there modified his judgment, he would have seen. Angela
was not young enough for him. She was not liberal in her views. She was
charming, no doubt of that, but he could not bring her to an
understanding of his casual acceptance of life. She knew nothing of his
real disposition and he did not tell her. He played the part of a
seemingly single-minded Romeo, and as such he was from a woman's point
of view beautiful to contemplate. In his own mind he was coming to see
that he was fickle but he still did not want to admit it to himself.
There was a night of stars after an evening of June perfection. At five
old Jotham came in from the fields, as dignified and patriarchal as
ever. He greeted Eugene with a hearty handshake, for he admired him. "I
see some of your work now and then," he said, "in these monthly
magazines. It's fine. There's a young minister down here near the lake
that's very anxious to meet you. He likes to get hold of anything you
do, and I always send the books down as soon as Angela gets through with
them."
He used the words books and magazines interchangeably, and spoke as
though they were not much more important to him than the leaves of the
trees, as indeed, they were not. To a mind used to contemplating the
succession of crops and seasons, all life with its multitudinous
interplay of shapes and forms seemed passing shadows. Even men were like
leaves that fall.
Eugene was drawn to old Jotham as a filing to a magnet. His was just the
type of mind that appealed to him, and Angela gained by the radiated
glory of her father. If he was so wonderful she must be something above
the average of womanhood. Such a man could not help but produce
exceptional children.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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