rs which a Royal
Academician has to spend in acquiring his skill. Trefusis mentioned that
the apprenticeship of a mason was quite as long, twice as laborious,
and not half so pleasant. The artist now began to find Trefusis's
Socialistic views, with which he had previously fancied himself in
sympathy, both odious and dangerous. He demanded whether nothing was
to be allowed for genius. Trefusis warmly replied that genius cost
its possessor nothing; that it was the inheritance of the whole race
incidentally vested in a single individual, and that if that individual
employed his monopoly of it to extort money from others, he deserved
nothing better than hanging. The artist lost his temper, and suggested
that if Trefusis could not feel that the prerogative of art was divine,
perhaps he could understand that a painter was not such a fool as to
design a tomb for five pounds when he might be painting a portrait for
a thousand. Trefusis retorted that the fact of a man paying a thousand
pounds for a portrait proved that he had not earned the money, and was
therefore either a thief or a beggar. The common workman who sacrificed
sixpence from his week's wages for a cheap photograph to present to his
sweetheart, or a shilling for a pair of chromolithographic pictures
or delft figures to place on his mantelboard, suffered greater privation
for the sake of possessing a work of art than the great landlord or
shareholder who paid a thousand pounds, which he was too rich to miss,
for a portrait that, like Hogarth's Jack Sheppard, was only interesting
to students of criminal physiognomy. A lively quarrel ensued, Trefusis
denouncing the folly of artists in fancying themselves a priestly caste
when they were obviously only the parasites and favored slaves of
the moneyed classes, and his friend (temporarily his enemy) sneering
bitterly at levellers who were for levelling down instead of levelling
up. Finally, tired of disputing, and remorseful for their acrimony, they
dined amicably together.
The monument was placed in Highgate Cemetery by a small band of
workmen whom Trefusis found out of employment. It bore the following
inscription:
THIS IS THE MONUMENT OF HENRIETTA JANSENIUS WHO WAS BORN ON THE 26TH
JULY, 1856, MARRIED TO SIDNEY TREFUSIS ON THE 23RD AUGUST, 1875, AND WHO
DIED ON THE 21ST DECEMBER IN THE SAME YEAR.
Mr. Jansenius took this as an insult to his daughter's memory, and,
as the tomb was much smaller than many which had
|