Then all the charm
Is broken—all that phantom-world so fair
Vanished, and a thousand circlets spread,
And each misshapes the other.
COLERIDGE.
“Abstracted in his habits, quiet and sensitive, from his reveries in
dream-land, the orphan woke to find himself the inmate of a new home.
“Mrs. Winter, the only sister of the late Mr. Talbot, was wholly unlike
her brother. With little taste for the elegancies of life, except so far
as she thought their possession would give her importance in the eyes of
others, with no sympathy for any ambition save that of acquiring money,
she looked with no very favorable eye on her brother’s orphan. Dazzled
by the prospect of a carriage, a town and country-house in perspective,
she had married a man of sixty, when she was barely sixteen, and could
never forgive her brother for not falling in with her scheme of catching
the rich heiress, who, she avowed, waited but the asking to change the
name of Miss Patty Pringle, for the more lofty-sounding title of Mrs.
Percy Talbot. But Percy Talbot preferred the portionless Isabel Morton,
and the monotony of a counting-room, to the bank-stock, real estate, and
soulless face of Miss Patty Pringle. Hence there was little intercourse
between the brother and sister, and when the younger Talbot sought the
shelter of his aunt’s roof, she animadverted with great bitterness on
the folly of people gratifying a taste for luxuries beyond their means,
and encouraging boys without a shilling to spend their time in reading
books and daubing canvas.
“Nor could Mrs. Winter refrain from talking of stupidity, when Paul sat
quietly at his drawing, while her own sons were making the house ring
with their boisterous mirth. The boys, catching the spirit of their
mother, ridiculed Paul’s sketches, and with the petty tyranny of little
minds, subjected him to every annoyance, and taunted him with his
dependent state. The proud, sensitive boy, writhed under such treatment,
and determined on leaving the relatives who had neither tastes nor
sympathies in common with his own.
“When at the age of twelve years, he hung over the landscape he was
trying to imitate, and from which no boyish sports could lure him; when
he saw the sketch grow beneath his touch, and look more and more like
the original, until in the exultation of his young heart, he exclaimed,
‘I knew that I could do it if I did but try,’ he unconsciously displayed
that perseverance of character without which no one can hope to attain
eminence. And now that same energy was employed in seeking means to gain
a livelihood without being subjected to the bitterness of insult.
“He succeeded in obtaining a situation in a dry-good store, and in
compensation for his services, received his board and a scanty salary.
True, he had but little, but that little was his own; he had earned it,
and a proud feeling of independence was his, when purchasing the scanty
stock of drawing materials with money obtained by his own exertions. And
so passed a few years, during which he diligently devoted himself to the
business of his employer through the day, and to reading and drawing at
night.
“The long cherished hope of visiting Italy had never been abandoned,
although the many obstacles in the way seemed almost insurmountable. But
now a bright thought occurred to him; ‘I will give up my situation; I
will hire a room with the money already saved, and devote myself
entirely to the pursuit of art. I shall paint a picture—it will be
placed in the exhibition—and then—’ Talbot paused, and his cheek
glowed, and his heart-pulse quickened as he looked into the future.
“The resolution once taken, he was not long in carrying it into effect;
and day after day saw him at his easel, laboring with patient assiduity,
and flattering himself that his picture would not pass unnoticed.
“When the day of exhibition arrived, Talbot walked nervously up and down
the gallery where the pictures were hanging, every now and then glancing
at his own, with the small ticket appended announcing it for sale, and
pausing to observe if it attracted attention. But it had been placed in
a bad light, directly beneath two brightly-tinted landscapes, and so low
down that you were obliged to put one knee on the floor before it could
be examined. Poor Paul! no one gave more than a passing glance to what
had cost you weeks of patient labor, and the papers passed it by with
merely announcing its name and number on the catalogue.
“What a rude dashing down of all his hopes was here! What a fading of
the air-built castles he had taken such delight in building? The land of
promise had receded from his view, and the shores of Italy were as a
far-off vision seen in the dimness of deepening twilight. Oh, what a
sinking of the heart follows such disappointments! A goal is to be
won—the aspirant rushes eagerly to the race—hope lures him on—he
grows weary, oh, how weary—courage—the thrilling sound of fame’s
trumpet-peal is ringing on those heights afar—courage—one more
struggle and the prize will be his own! One more struggle—and hope
fades from his sight—and the last faint echo of fame’s music dies upon
his ear—and a dull lethargy seizes on his mind—and the pulses of his
heart grow still and cold as the waveless, tideless surface of a deep,
dark lake! Happy he who can shake off the despondency attendant on times
like these, and, like the bird momentarily driven back by the storm, can
plume his wings and dare a nobler flight.