Laying his drawings on the counter, he
requested the person who stood there to look at them. They were
immediately opened; and the count, dreading a second repulse, or even
more than similar insolence, hastily added--
"They are scenes in Germany. If you like to have them their price is
a guinea."
"Are you the painter, sir?" was the reply.
"Yes, sir. Do they please you?"
"Yes," answered the tradesman, (for it was the master, examining them
nearer); "there is a breadth and freedom in the style which is novel,
and may take. I will give you your demand;" and he laid the money on
the counter.
Rejoiced that he had succeeded where he had entertained no hope,
Thaddeus, with a bow, was leaving the shop, when the man called after
him, "Stay, sir!"
He returned, prepared to now hear some disparaging remark.
It is strange, but it is true, that those who have been thrust by
misfortune into a state beneath their birth and expectations, too
often consider themselves the objects of universal hostility. They
see contempt in every eye, they suppose insult in every word; the
slightest neglect is sufficient to set the sensitive pride of the
unfortunate in a blaze; and, alas! how little is this sensibility
respected by the rich and gay in their dealings with the unhappy! To
what an addition of misery are the wretched exposed, meeting not only
those contumelies which the prosperous are not backward to bestow,
but those fancied ills which, however unfounded, keep the mind in a
feverish struggle with itself, and an uttered warfare with the
surrounding world!
Repeated insults infused into the mind of Sobieski much of this
anticipating irritability; and it was with a very haughty step that
he turned back to hear what the printseller meant to say.
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