HOMAGE TO ART.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 77, 31 July 1869, Page 5

HOMAGE TO ART.

On Monday the 19th April about three o'clock in the afternoon, an amusing incident occured in the British Museum. It appears that three young ladies, apparently sisters, and of the respective ages of from nineteen to twenty-two or twenty-three years, were passing along taking the greatest interest in all they saw. At length they chanced to come upon a sleeping Cupid. There he lay, with a most delicious dream-smile on his face. They gathered round him, and, with the true sympathy of woman, soon began to smile also. "What a sweet child ! " exclaimed one. " What a dear, lovely boy ! " sighed another ; and they gazed and revelled in silent ecstasy over this embodiment of the sculptor's genius. But the eldest of the three certainly put the climax on the whole, for without any idea of the possibility of the thing, or the logical sequence of what she was about to say, she breathed forth. " What a handsome man he ivoxild have made 1 ! ! " We put three notes of admiration to this whispered expression, so warm and intense was the feeling that ushered it into the world. What next and next ? "Why, they all looked silently at each other, aud at the dreaming marhle before them when, with that touch of nature which is said to make the whole world kin, they each bent over the sleeping GTod of Love, kissed him in turn, and went away with lingering looks behind. Like most other mundane joys it had, however, its shadow — but very light; in fact, so lightly did that shadow'fall at the blissful moment, that those poetic daughters of Eve will not have known of its existence until they read these lines. To be plain, then a young art student was quietly ensconced behind a group of statuary sketching something before him, and perfectly bidden from the sight of the ladies. When he saw the unusual turn which affairs had taken, he crouched down, and almost hid himself in his boots. Poor fellow, what a Barmecide feast was his ! — "£ut time at last bi'in^s all things even, — And if we do but wait the hour." To him our readers owe the discovery. —"Builder."