or I shall take no comfort."

Soon after his arrival in New York he began the portrait of Chancellor
Kent, and writing of him he says:--

"He is not a good sitter; he scarcely presents the same view twice; he is
very impatient and you well know that I cannot paint an impatient person;
I must have my mind at ease or I cannot paint.

"I have no more applications as yet, but it is not time to expect them.
All the artists are complaining, and there are many of them, and they are
all poor. The arts are as low as they can be. It is no better at the
South, and all the accounts of the arts or artists are of the most
discouraging nature."

The portrait of the Chancellor seems not to have brought him more orders,
for a little later he writes to his wife: "I waited many days in the hope
of some application in my profession, but have been disappointed until
last evening I called and spent the evening with my friend Mr. Van
Schaick, and told him I had thought of painting some little design from
the 'Sketch Book,' so as not to be idle, and mentioned the subject of
Ichabod Crane discovering the headless horseman.

"He said: 'Paint it for me and another picture of the same size, and I
will take them of you.' So I am now employed....

"_My secret scheme_ is not yet disclosable, but I shall let you know as
soon as I hear anything definite."

Still later he says:--

"I have seen many of the artists; they all agree that little is doing in
the city of New York. It seems wholly given to commerce. Every man is
driving at one object--the making of money--not the spending of it....

"My _secret scheme_ looks promising, but I am still in suspense; you
shall know the moment it is decided one way or the other."

His brother, Sidney Edwards, in a letter to his parents of December 9,
1823, says: "Finley is in good spirits again; not because he has any
prospect of business here, but he is dreaming of the gold mines of
Mexico."

As his _secret_ was now out, he explains it fully in the following letter
to his wife, dated December 21, 1823:--

"My cash is almost gone and I begin to feel some anxiety and perplexity
to know what to do. I have advertised, and visited, and hinted, and
pleaded, and even asked one man to sit, but all to no purpose.... My
expenses, with the most rigid economy, too, are necessarily great; my
rent to-morrow will amount to thirty-three dollars, and I have nothing to
pay it with.

"What can I do? I have been here f