What Will He Do With It, Book 6.

hose villains the trunk-makers, may be of inestimable value to unborn antiqu

l Parliament, who, advised by physicians to be as much on horseback as possible, snatches an hour or so in the interval between the close of his Committee and the interest of the Debate, and shirks the opening speech of a well-known bore. Among such truant lawgivers (grief it is to say it) may be seen that once model member, Sir Gregory Stollhead. Grim dyspepsia seizing on him at last, "relaxation from his duties" becomes the adequate punishment for all his sins. Solitary he rides, and communing with himself, yawns at every second. Upon chairs beneficently located under the trees towards the north side of the walk are interspersed small knots and coteries in repose. There you might see the Ladies Prymme, still the Ladies Prymme,-Janet and Wilhelmina; Janet has grown fat, Wilhelmina thin. But thin or fat, they are no less Prymmes. They do not lack male attendants; they are girls of high fashion, with whom young inen think it a distinction to be seen talking; of high principle, too

round, the chairless shade of a thin, emaciated, dusty tree, thither he retires, and seats himself with as little care whether there to seat himself be the right thing in the right place, as if in the honeysuckle arbour of a village inn. "It serves me right," said he to himself: "a precocious villain bursts in upon me, breaks my day, makes an appointment to meet me here, in these very walks, ten minutes before six; decoys me with the promise of a dinner at Putney,-room looking on the river and fried flounders. I have the credulity to yield: I derange my habits; I leave my cool studio; I put off my easy blouse; I imprison my freeborn thro

evidently he is popular, on good terms with the world and himself. What free grace in his bearing! what gay good-humour in his smile! Powers above! Lady Wilhelmina surely blushes as she returns his bow. He has passed Lady Frost unblighted; the Slowes evince emotion,

e, I know; but I did not make

absentee just arrived in London, yo

t every corner, like pleasant surprises,-but

ince!/ The Houses of Valois and of Medici were always kind to artists. But

pant; but when the many-headed monster buys its hats in Bond Street, and has an eyeglass at each of its inquisitive

u really dislike to mix in crowds; you, with your fame, dislike the eyes that turn back to look again, and the lips that respect

erious ingredients. Fame! did you read the 'Times' critique on my pictures in the present Exhibition? Fame indeed Change the subject. Nothing so good as flounders. Ho!

l, chosen by Colonel Morley." When the young men had settled themselves into the vehicl

ant gravity, "your cynical definitions are unworthy that

erem O

juvat; meta

a roti

growing excited, teased the horse with his whip; and the h

, you follow the career of arms! Never heed what is said on the subject by a querulous painter! The desire of fame may be folly in civilians: in soldiers it is wisdom. Twin-born with the martial sense of honour, it cheers the march; it warms the bivouac; it gives music to the whir of the bullet, the roar of the ball; it

elight. He could not answer: he was too moved. The artist resumed, as the cabriolet now cleared the Park, and rolled safely and rapidly along the road. "I suppose, during the fi

o pleased as when I could fasten myself to some practical veteran,-question and cross-examine him. One picks up more ideas in conversation than from books; at least I do. Besides, my idea of a soldier who is to succeed some day is not that of a mere mechanician -at-arms. See how accomplish

so. Yes; I am glad to see such enthusiasm in your profession: 't is half the battle. Hazlitt said a capital thing, 'The

ionel, catchin

ee with you, nothing like leather. I mean nothing like a really great soldier,-Hannibal, and so fo

it prudent to divert the conversat

e, consents to your ch

me such a beautiful letter! what a co

he agrees with you

ince I heard from him. He was then at

m since he bade you farewel

ot, I believe, b

re you seem to hav

n who require a home. Between the great world and solitude, he needs the intermediate filling- up which the life domestic alone supplies: a wife to realize the sweet word helpmate; childre

ved with very clever people: you

ent you,-the subtlest intellect under the quietest manner. Once he said to me, 'Would you throughout life be up to the height of your century,-always in the p

the evident result of the maxim. And so Dar

ost his only son in boyhood, and

, w

y match-and died many ye

, then, that soured his life, and m

g keep it up. It might have been an effort to which, strong as he is, he felt himself unequal; or, might he have known some fresh disappointment, some new sorrow, which the world never guesses? What I have said as to his family aff

my poor Lionel, y

em, make my ears tingle and my cheek blush. When I think of what Darrell has already done for me,-me who have no claim on him,-it seems to me as if I must hate the man who

I suspect that at least two-thirds of those friendly hands that detained you on the way to me were str

ice! Oh for a sharp campaign! Oh for fair trial how far a man in earnest can grapple Fortune to his breast with his own strong hands! You have done so, Vance; you had but your genius and your paint

t the Yahoo of the mocking satirist was to man; absorbed much by the brooding ambition that takes youth out of the frivolous present into the serious future, and seeking companionship, not with contemporary idlers, but with the highest and maturest intellects that the free commonwealth of good society brought within his reach: five years so spent had developed a boy, nursing noble dreams, into

small reputation, patience, hope, and concentration of purpose must have the credit of it; and prudence, too, which you have forgotte

o like you, Frank,

dun whom I could not pay? Art needs serenity; and if an artist begin his career with as

provement which Vance had just formed, but seriously disquieted the kindly artist. Vance knew the world,-knew the peculiar temptations to which a young man in Lionel's position wou

auspicious moment f

cried Lionel,-"

-side, and while dinner was getting read

se green quiet banks along which we

harming child, whose portrait you too

! How should

father had gone to America. Darrell gently implied that, from what he learned of them, they

ophy had something about her extremely prepossessing, besides her pretty

Nor I. I see it

e ungrateful. Would you believe it,-that little portrait, which cos

ou had the hea

rse to Wouvermans'. Well, that child, who cost me three pounds, is the original of them all. Commencing as a Titania, she has been in turns a 'Psyche,' a 'Beatrice-Cenci,' a 'Minna,' 'A Portrait of a Nobleman's Daughter,' 'Burns's Mary in Heaven,' 'The Young Gleaner,' and 'Sabrina Fair,' in Milton's 'Comus.'

ou will laugh, Vance, but I have been heartproof against all young

rry girls in their teens, and don't ask for dowries. Married to a Yankee

tongue. /A propos/ of marria

quarters him into a new double, till what was a wide and handsome substance, large enough for anything in reason, dwindles into a pitiful square that will not cover one platter,-all puckers and creases, smaller and smaller with every double, with every double a new crease. Then, my fr

uble, toil a

where he lodges, and how he dines. The first necessary a wife demands is the most ruinous, the most indefinite superfluity; it is Gentility according to what her neighbours call genteel. Gentility commences with the honeymoon; it is its sh

y again

eriously; and sinking into a revery th