Page:Margaret Sherwood--A Puritan in Bohemia.djvu/146



unexpected happened. Anne Bradford, coming home late one afternoon, stopped by the mail-box to open a letter and to tear off the cover of a new number of Art and Life. In the leading article she caught sight of her own name, and she sat down on the stairs with a little gasp.

The critic described her picture at the Art Club exhibition. It was only an unpretentious study, he said, of an old sailor. There was a pathetic quiver in the wrinkled lip. This was a sad ending for a life spent on the high seas. The critic praised the peculiar faithfulness to detail, combined with a poetic inspiration. This carefulness of workmanship was refreshing after the high-handed methods of the impressionists, symbolists, sensationalists. Perhaps this was one of the welcome signs of a coming reaction.

A few days later Miss Bradford received 138