The musicale is to-night, you know."

"I had forgotten it; but we can go afterwards."

"That is, if you will mend my gloves."

"Do get a new pair, Hugh."

"No; I have only ten dollars left; I shall not have any more until
August, and my heart is set upon a little picture at Gurner's. You
have no idea how much I want it; I stop to look at it every time I
pass the window, and the liking has, grown into a positive longing.
I really must have it."

"What is the subject?"

"It is, I suppose, an allegorical design, but what attracted me was
the beauty of the coloring and its fidelity to nature. It represents
a youth standing in a little shaded valley, looking forward and upward
through a vista which gradually rises into a bold mountain peak. The
atmosphere is all morning, early morning, with purple hues on the
hill-side, mists rising from the river, and a vague remoteness even in
the nearest forest; deep shadows lie over the valley, but the rising
sun shines on the mountain-peak, lighting it up with a golden
radiance, while behind it, there seemed to spread away into distance
the atmosphere of another country, a beautiful unseen Paradise.
Towards this mountain-peak the youth is looking with ardent eyes; one
feels sure that his hopes are there, and that sooner or later he will
reach the golden country beyond."