thought, sentiment, or experience; or if he met a beggar in the street,
with a white beard and a furrowed brow; or if sometimes a child happened
to look up and smile; he would exhaust all the art on them, that he
denied to wealth.

Pictorial skill being so rare in the colonies, the painter became an
object of general curiosity. If few or none could appreciate the
technical merit of his productions, yet there were points in regard to
which the opinion of the crowd was as valuable as the refined judgment of
the amateur. He watched the effect that each picture produced on such
untutored beholders, and derived profit from their remarks, while they
would as soon have thought of instructing Nature herself, as him who
seemed to rival her. Their admiration, it must he owned, was tinctured
with the prejudices of the age and country. Some deemed it an offence
against the Mosaic law, and even a presumptuous mockery of the Creator,
to bring into existence such lively images of his creatures. Others,
frightened at the art which could raise phantoms at will, and keep the
form of the dead among the living, were inclined to consider the painter
as a magician, or perhaps the famous Black Man, of old witch times,
plotting mischief in a new guise. These foolish fancies were more than
half believed among the mob. Even in superior circles, his character was
invested with a vague awe, partly rising like smoke-wreaths from the
popular superstitious, but chiefly caused by the varied knowledge and
talents which he made subservient to his profession.

Being on the eve of marriage, Walter Ludlow and Elinor were eager to
obtain their portraits, as the first of what, they doubtless hoped, would
be a long series of family pictures. The day after the conversation
above recorded, they visited the painter's rooms. A servant ushered them
into an apartment, where, though the artist himself was not visible,