virtuoso, who after all could not do every thing
himself, nor live for ever, and I now, especially after a glass of
wine, inspecting it with more profound attention, convince myself in
right earnest that it actually is a production of the old master, and
so hand it over to another lover of his, and desire only a fair
recompense for my pains, in having let my hand be guided and my own
genius suppressed for the time, to the detriment of my own reputation
as an artist:--Is this then an offence, my darling, that cries to
Heaven, to sacrifice myself in this child-like simplicity?"

He raised the recumbent head, but changed his grin of good-humour into
a gravity equally distorted, on seeing the cheeks of the youth full of
tears, which were gushing out of his eyes in a hot incessant stream.
"Oh, my lost youth!" sobbed Edward; "oh, ye golden days, ye weeks, and
years! how sinfully have I squandered you away, as though there lay not
in your hours the germ of virtue, of honour, and of happiness; as
though this precious treasure of time were ever to be redeemed. Like a
glass of stale water have I poured forth my life and the essence of my
heart. Oh! what a state of being might have opened on me, what
happiness for myself and others, had not an evil genius blinded my
eyes! Trees of blessing were growing and spreading a shade around me
and over me, in which a friend, a wife, and the afflicted, might have
found help, comfort, home, and peace; and I, in giddy wantonness, have
laid the axe to this grove, and must now endure frost, storm, and
heat!"

Eulenboeck did not know what sort of face to make, still less what to
say; for in this mood, with such sentiments, he had never seen his
young friend before. At last he was glad to escape observation, and to
be able snugly to empty his bottle.

"Thou art bent then on becoming virtuous, my son?" he began at last;
"Good again. Verily few men are so inclined to virtue as myself, for it
requires a keen eye to know even what virtue is. To act the niggard,
and force people to lie in the face of God and man, is certainly none.
But whoever has the true talent that way is sure to find it. If I help
a sensible man to a good Salvator or Julio Romano of my own hand, and
he is pleased with it, I have at all events done a better action than
if I were to sell a blockhead a genuine Raphael, of which the dolt does
not know the value, and at the bottom of his heart would take more
delight in a tricksy Va