begin their
bitter journey backward and down--down to their native Philistia: but
never again will they rejoice among their fellows, for they have beheld
that which has lifted them far towards the stars; and the companionship
of clods must be hateful to them even in their fall.--But the rest, oh
Joseph, see how they are gathered into those great mother-arms, and
given comfort and good courage, power to continue on their upward way,
strength to fight all battles, face all mockery, kill all slander, till
the day dawns when they shall receive both the homage of the low, and
the loving applause of the Most High; when they shall sit enthroned,
wearing the double crown of man and of God.

"Oh Priest, oh Painter, such is our Law."

Ivan, moved beyond himself, struggled slowly out of the vision in which
he had been enwrapped, his mind still soaring in regions of the
imagination, where melodies sky-born did, indeed, surround him. But his
return to earth came with a quick shock. When at length his reluctant
hands fell from the keys, Ivan turned, instinctively, to the couch where
the stranger lay. The gaunt form there was motionless, the head thrown
back upon the pillows, one hand hanging limply to the floor. Something
in the attitude, and the faint sound of quiet, regular breathing,
brought a flood of scarlet over Ivan's face. The Pole's lips were parted
in an angelic smile. Joseph the painter was fast asleep!

CHAPTER XVII

HERITAGE

When he woke next morning, and the unusual incidents of the day before
came back to him one by one, Ivan's sense of mortification at his
self-abandonment in the evening had but one saving grace: the fact that
Joseph had slept through his impulsive and extravagant fantasy. But
unhappily, as it presently appeared, this supposition proved a mistake.
The youth had certainly heard part of his rescuer's parable; though how
much Ivan did not attempt to discover, in his embarrassment at finding
himself burdened with a disciple who very evidently believed him a
world-famous man.

First of all Ivan set to work to assure himself of the truth of the
young man's story; and, this being proved, next sought his friends'
advice about establishing him somewhere in the neighborhood of the big
art-school where he had worked, (which, as a matter of fact, happens to
be the best in Russia); meantime giving him the wherewithal to live till
his course was finished.

Unquestionably, Joseph had been in a stat