ionnaires,
artists, tradesmen, washerwomen, and people of every degree,--all of
whom find such gilded and marble-panelled saloons as their pomp and
luxury demand, or such homely garrets as their necessity can pay for,
within this one multifarious abode. Only, in not a single nook of the
palace (built for splendor, and the accommodation of a vast retinue, but
with no vision of a happy fireside or any mode of domestic enjoyment)
does the humblest or the haughtiest occupant find comfort.

Up such a staircase, on the morning after the scene at the sculpture
gallery, sprang the light foot of Donatello. He ascended from story
to story, passing lofty doorways, set within rich frames of sculptured
marble, and climbing unweariedly upward, until the glories of the first
piano and the elegance of the middle height were exchanged for a sort of
Alpine region, cold and naked in its aspect. Steps of rough stone, rude
wooden balustrades, a brick pavement in the passages, a dingy whitewash
on the walls; these were here the palatial features. Finally, he paused
before an oaken door, on which was pinned a card, bearing the name of
Miriam Schaefer, artist in oils. Here Donatello knocked, and the door
immediately fell somewhat ajar; its latch having been pulled up by means
of a string on the inside. Passing through a little anteroom, he found
himself in Miriam's presence.

"Come in, wild Faun," she said, "and tell me the latest news from
Arcady!"

The artist was not just then at her easel, but was busied with the
feminine task of mending a pair of gloves.

There is something extremely pleasant, and even touching,--at least,
of very sweet, soft, and winning effect,--in this peculiarity of
needlework, distinguishing women from men. Our own sex is incapable of
any such by-play aside from the main business of life; but women--be
they of what earthly rank they may, however gifted with intellect or
genius, or endowed with awful beauty--have always some little handiwork
ready to fill the tiny gap of every vacant moment. A needle is familiar
to the fingers of them all. A queen, no doubt, plies it on occasion; the
woman poet can use it as adroitly as her pen; the woman's eye, that has
discovered a new star, turns from its glory to send the polished little
instrument gleaming along the hem of her kerchief, or to darn a casual
fray in her dress. And they have greatly the advantage of us in this
respect. The slender thread of silk or cotton keeps t