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256 THE PORTRAIT.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
+ -A^ Ghaptek V. It Lias "Been Affirmed ...
I felt excessively uncomfortable , for I saw Mr . Waddington and Mr . Martyn exchange significant looks ; and the former , with a sly
smile playing at the corners of his mouth , asked Mr . Carey , the young sculptorif he believed the report to be true .
, " I am sure I cannot tell ; I only know that his friends had sad work to get him to exhibit it ; but being the only thing he had
finished , they insisted _ujdou it . Indeed , they almost took it away by forceand it is said to- be a beautiful painting . It was Howard
, who told me , and they are intimate , so he should know something of the matter . "
" It is a beautiful picture , " chimed in Mr . Martyn , " _bLit there is nothing French in it . I have just been to see it , and pronounce it
a chef cVceuvre . " " You are right" said a ladysitting near Mr . Martyn , "it is a
,, good picture , * the figure is a copy from a painting in the Pope ' s palace /'
_vA . copy of what ? " grinned , rather than said Mr . Waddington _, who was a bit of a wagand hadI knewa positive dislike to Mrs ,
Sullen , with her round , black eyes , , bullet , -shaped head , fat cheeks , and vulgarity .
" A copy of St . John , to be sure , " snappishly answered the lady . " WellI never knew before that St . John was a sculptor ; but
, are you sure the original is in the Vatican ? " asked the mischievous Mr . Waddington .
" Perfectly sure , " replied Mrs . Bullen , " for the artist told me so himselfand I wonder how you can doubt the fact , " she added ,
with an _, air of superior knowledge of the contents of the palace of his holiness .
" Excuse me , madam , " began a benevolent clergyman , who chanced to be next her" you are confusing the picture of Mr .
Clelland with that of Mr , . Clevelandwhich is now the subject of , conversati on . "
"La ! " exclaimed the enlightened admirer of Mr . Clelland , ( a popular portrait painter ) " none of you gentlemen , surely , can
admire the pictures of , Mr . Cleveland . I never imagined for a moment you were speaking of him . I gave a glance , " she
continued , " at what my friend Mr . Clelland pointed out to me as an ' idear of _prosj ) erity , ' I think he called itbut really Mr .
Cleveland has a poor idear of his subject if he fancies , a young woman in a white pinafore a fit representative of the idear of prosperity , " as
she _interjDreted the ideal Properzia . Mr . Waddington so far infringed upon the established law of
politeness as to permit his risibility to master him . Mrs . Bullen thought of course he laughed at her bright wit , and heartily
_resj ) onded to it . Any one daring to laugh at herself would have been to that invincible impersonation of conceit " an idear , " as she
elegantly pronounced that word , inconceivable . " Only fancy such a . picture hung up in the Goldsmiths' Plall as
an emblem of prosperity . "
256 The Portrait.
256 THE PORTRAIT .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1861, page 256, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061861/page/40/
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