"Think of it, we shall soon see his name in the papers--heaven knows
where he'll stop. How proud I am of my darling, darling boy."
And she dreamed over the pages of Antony's closely-written letter,
seeing his youth and his talent burn there like flame. She sent
him--selling her watch and her drop earrings to do so--a hundred
dollars, all she could get for her jewels. And the sum of money came
like manna into his famished state. His mother's gift gave him courage
to rise early and to work late, and the silver sang in his waistcoat
pockets again, and he paid his little ladies, thanking them graciously
for their patience; he sent his aunt a bunch of flowers, bought an image
of the Virgin for old Ann, a box of colours for Gardiner, and a book for
Bella.
Then Antony, passing over the threshold of the workshop, was swallowed
up by art.
And he paid for his salt!
How valuable he was to Cedersholm those days he discovered some ten
years later. Perched on his high stool at the drawing-table, his
materials before him, he drew in freehand what his ideas suggested. The
third day he went with Cedersholm to the palace of Rudolph Field on
Fifth Avenue to inspect the rooms to be decorated. Fairfax went into the
"Castle of the Chinking Guineas" (as he called it in writing to his
mother), as buoyantly as though he had not a leaking boot on one foot
and a bill for a cheap suit of clothes in his pocket. He mentally ranged
his visions on the frieze he was to consider, and as he thought, his own
stature seemed to rise gigantic in the vast salon. He was alone with
Cedersholm. The Fields were in Europe, not to return until the palace
had been made beautiful.
Cedersholm planned out his scheme rather vaguely, discoursing on a
commonplace theme, indicating ceilings and walls, and Fairfax heard him
through his own meditations. He impulsively caught the Master's arm, and
himself pointing, "Just there," he said, "why not...." And when he had
finished, Cedersholm accepted, but without warmth.
"Perfectly. You have caught my suggestions, Mr. Fairfax," and poor
Antony shut his lips over his next flight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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