13th.--Finished the background of _Beauty_, and lettered it afresh, and pasted in frame; then wrote the letter to Secretary Mogford of the Sketch-Exhibition. I have sent this morning _The Brent_ to this place, and to-morrow go the Studies of Heads, and _Beauty_.... 14th.--... Went to National Gallery. Met Woolner; his statue of Wentworth the Lag[97] not a safe bill yet--poor Woolner! The Lag has some idea of being done by some greater artist, and going down to posterity more beautiful. Walked home from the Archway with a bad foot. Evening, suffered severely.... 16th.--Worked at the landscape of the turnip-field. Took off dirt and inequalities of surface, and retouched the corn-part of it. Evening, idle and suffering (two hours).... 18th.--This evening inconceivably dejected and stupid. Read newspaper, and thought over our melancholy position; Emma about to be confined--£2. 10s. in the house--Christmas-boxes to be _paid out of this_, and the children taken back to Gravesend--and not one person in the world I would ask to lend me a pound. No one that buys my pictures; damn old White! (two hours). 19th.--Disagreeable day--foot rather better. I lazy and not wishing to work, we devised to have the drugget up, it being at length too disgracefully full of holes. Remainder of the evening--nothing. 20th.--Wrote a disagreeable letter, and put down the carpet, and planned and directed the patching thereof--children assisting in great delight; and with Ruth we got it done. Last night also glued sundry chairs, &c. 21st.--Took down the _Christ and Peter_, and scraped it for repainting, morning and evening.... 23rd.--An alarm from Emma.... Started back as far as Islington to see after the nurse.... Took ’bus myself to the Archway, Highgate, in distress of mind at not being able to afford a cab in such an emergency; and so walked home four miles, racked with anxiety about Emma, the most beautiful duck in existence. With 18s. 9d. in hand, to last at least three weeks, how _could_ I take a cab? and this was all that remained me this evening. As I walked down the Grove, and very tired with a weak foot, I felt that mysterious assurance that all was right which I have before felt when nearing some dreaded event that has eventually turned out all right. I got home at eight p.m., and found dear Emma still in expectation.... I found also (strange coincidence) a letter from William Bamford asking me to do a miniature of him. Such a demand I have wished for at other times in vain, and not for months and months has anything of the kind occurred. 24th.--... This evening Emma found in her drawers two shillings and three farthings--all in four-penny-pieces, pennies, halfpence, farthings, &c., left there at different times, and forgotten. What a boon! Katty appropriated the three farthings. To-night I have worked about four hours, altering the linen cloth round the loins of Christ, and correcting the drawing--(seven hours).