The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-04-05

or to the stalled OK of Russell Square, rest
ing content with her mama and with he
dinner of herbs.
This was their rate of living, reckoning
each item at the sum to which it woult
amount in the course of the whole year:
Weekly bill for lodging, etc. $40
Food %
| Clothes 10
Painting materials 50
Coal and light 8
Stationary
Miscellaneous items 10
ADJUSTMENTS o
| Spent upon Mrs Levi, and similar
pieces of extravaganza 40
Total e1s1
! And this was their rate of income, reck.
oned in the same manner:
BY writing for Magazines 10
BY giving drawing lessons 20
BY sale of pictures 0
That is to say, there was every week a
balance of about 81 to the wrong side of
the account, which had to be made good
in order that existence might be supported
in the poorest way. If the family should
in due time happen to increase in number,
it would be bad look out indeed, unless
it is true that God never sends mouths
without sending food to fill them-a doc
trine which is by do means recognized by
political economists.
Does the reader know what the above
balance sheet means? 1t is to be hoped
not. For it means dinners of dry bread
and water, with the occasional addition of
meat as medicine rather than as food: it
means the existence of two people in two
very small, very barely furnished rooms that
must answer all the purposes of bedroom,
studio, dining room, reception-room, and
work-room, with a prospect of having to
serve for a nursery as WE'LL in which the
mistress has to be at once both cook, house.
maid, dress maker and tailor: it means toll
without recreation: it means clothes in
whose company no one would wish to be
seen even by 4 stranger: it means loss of
all acquaintance; it means the expendi-
ture of all ones energies upon the great
questions of how to obtain enough food to
escape starvation: it means darkness, hun
GER and cold. A hundred and eighty
pounds year is a splendid income for a
skill mechanic; it is sufficient income for
many a lawyer. surgeon, or clergyman:
but for people like Arthur and Felicia it
means the very brink of absolute pauper-
ism. And then, worst of all, there was the
feeling, shared, though not expressed by
both, that if it had not been for me, he or
she would be in comfort. And yet l do
not think that either of these two would
have given up their poverty for an empire
if the empire had to be ruled alone. Their
labor of body and mind seemed to be end
less, Improbable, vain; and yet they also,
after their fashion, had good reward for
it after all.
How, in the name of ill-fortune, do
these people live % asked one brother
painter of another after they had on some
rare occasion interrupted Arthurs toll for
an hour, and borne into his hermitage a
stray breath from the outer air. "And
then to think that he should 60 on making
these frightful daubs, that no one will
dream of buying, when that beautiful girl
is starving by his side. He's good fel-
low, all the same-but whenever l look
upon that most unholy family of his and
then upon Mrs Cranstoun, feel inclined
to pitch him out of the widow, and his
picture after him."
"And carry of the lady? Well, any
way, he's warning against matrimony.
But, seriously, can't you persuade him
that he will never make anything of paint
ing::"
"My dear fellow, 1 should speak to the
wind If he doesn't read remonstrance in
that girls eyes, he certainly won't listen
to the words of wisdom as they come from
me. Did you ever hear of that sort of
insanity yielding to good advice? Be-
sides, she's ten times worse than he.
believe she thinks him second Raphael"
AT all events he might take her for his
model, instead of the saints of church win
dows.''
"Ah, if he could do that! But 1 don't
blame him for not doing impossibilities. l
expect those opal eyes would be cut
above Titan, or even you or me.''
81 wish I had hundred pounds to
spare"
"And l wish l had the moon. Only
sending that to the Cranstouns would be
sending Goals to Newcastle
1t was certainly mystery how and
where the weekly sovereign was found
Arthur himself did not know-he was too
much absorbed in his work to heed. lie
probably thought, as such men are apt to
think, that it came of itself.
But some one knew: and that was no
ether than Nathan Levi.
| One night he had the widest dream of
all, and, in its way, the most glorious. To
do him justice, he had had hard struggle
with himself and with the absorbing love
of his whole life when he had learned from
Judith that it was necessary for him to
choose between indulgence in his wild pas
sion and the very life of his mother. But
the more he tried to overcome the fatal
influence of the great Emerald, the more
strong its influence grew. He could not
part with it, come what would. He might
feed on garbage with the homeless ours; he
might leave his own mother to starve, he
might destroy himself body and soul; but
he could not give up his dreams. On the
night in question-it was some time after