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PHILIP MALBONE had that perfectly sunny temperament which is peculiarly captivating among Americans, because it is so rare. He liked everybody and everybody liked him; he had a thousand ways of affording pleasure, and he received it in the giving. He had a personal beauty, which, strange to say, was recognized by both sexes, for handsome men must often consent to be mildly hated by their own.
Of course portraits, being painted on commission, are not generally available for exhibition, but Mrs. de Haas has a few specimens of her work which warrant all that has been said in their praise. "One is a charming picture of a child, which for beauty of delineation and delicacy of tinting recalls the memory of our greatest of miniature painters, Malbone.
"The children are young, and it is not very presumptuous. I ought to know enough for that." Malbone looked at Kate, who smiled with delight, and put her hand on that of Hope. Indeed, she kept it there so long that one or two passing ladies stopped their salutations in mid career, and actually looked after them in amazement at their attitude, as who should say, "What a very mixed society!"
"Take notice that whenever I go to a dinner-party I look round for a clergyman to drink wine with." "Incorrigible!" said the caressing mother. "Mr. Malbone would hardly imagine you had been bred in a Christian land." "I have, though," retorted Blanche. "My esteemed parent always accustomed me to give up something during Lent, champagne, or the New York Herald, or something."
THIS was the history of Emilia's concealed visits to Malbone. One week after her marriage, in a crisis of agony, Emilia took up her pen, dipped it in fire, and wrote thus to him: "Philip Malbone, why did nobody ever tell me what marriage is where there is no love? This man who calls himself my husband is no worse, I suppose, than other men.
Never any more while he lived would either of them be his again; and had Dante known it for his last glimpse of things immortal when the two lovers floated away from him in their sad embrace, he would have had no such sense of utter banishment as had Malbone then.
It seemed as if this made it worse, and as if she would be happier if she could expend herself in hating him. She spoke of him rather as a mere witness to some shame for which she herself was responsible; bearing him no malice, but tortured by the thought that he should exist. Then she turned on Malbone. "Philip, why did you ever interfere with my life?
She arranged that, even after her own death, her daughter should still remain abroad for education; nor was Emilia ordered back until she brought down some scandal by a romantic attempt to elope from boarding-school with a Swiss servant. It was by weaning her heart from this man that Philip Malbone had earned the thanks of the whole household during his hasty flight through Europe.
Every morning I hope to wake up like them in the fear of God and the love of money." "You may as well stop," said Harry, coloring a little. "Malbone, you used to be my ideal man in my boyhood, but" "I am glad we have got beyond that," interrupted the other, cheerily, "I am only an idler in the land. Meanwhile, I have my little interests, read, write, sketch "
Scheffer's Christus Consolator was upon the walls, and the benign figure seemed to spread wider its arms of mercy, to take in a few sad hearts more. Hope bore Emilia into the light and purity and warmth, while Malbone was shut out into the darkness and the chill.
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