on
on Sarah Brandon. A friend of the old man's thought he had guessed the
riddle: he thought the old artist had succeeded in arousing Sarah's
pride. He had kindled in her a boundless ambition and the most
passionate covetousness. He intoxicated her with fairylike hopes.

"'Follow my counsels,' he used to say to her, 'and at twenty you will be
a queen,--a queen of beauty, of wit, and of genius. Study, and the
day will come when you will travel through Europe, a renowned artist,
welcomed in every capital, _feted_ everywhere, honored, and glorified.
Work, and wealth will come with fame,--immense, boundless wealth,
surpassing all your dreams. You will have the finest carriages, the most
magnificent diamonds; you will draw from inexhaustible purses; the whole
world will be at your feet; and the women will turn pale with envy and
jealousy when they see you. Among men there will be none so noble, none
so great, none so rich, but he will beg for one of your looks; and they
will fight for one of your smiles. Only work and study!'

"At all events, Sarah did work, and studied with a steady perseverance
which spoke of her faith in the promises of her old master, and of the
influence he had obtained over her through her vanity. At first she
had been deterred by the extreme difficulties which beset so late
a beginning; but her amazing natural gifts had soon begun to show
themselves, and in a short time her progress was almost miraculous.

"It is true that her innate sagacity had made her soon find out how
ignorant she was of the world. She saw that society did not exclusively
consist, as she had heretofore imagined, of people like those she had
known. She felt, for instance, what she had never suspected before, that
her unfortunate mother, with all her friends and companions, were only
the rare exceptions, laid under the ban by the immense majority.

"At last she actually learned to know the tree of good fruit, after
having for so many years known only the tree of forbidden fruit. She
listened with eager curiosity to all the old artist had to tell her. And
he knew much; for the eccentric old man had travelled for a long time
over the world, and observed man on every step of the social ladder. He
had been a favorite artist at the court of Vienna; he had had several
of his operas brought out in Italy; and he had been admitted to the best
society in Paris. At night, therefore, while sipping his coffee, his
feet on the andirons, and h