e of abject destitution. His
rooms were bare of every salable object save the cheapest of necessary
toilet articles, and a rather extravagant color-box and set of brushes.
But this fact of his having refused to sacrifice the implements of his
art, put a final touch to Ivan's growing friendship for and belief in
the plucky boy who had suffered as he had suffered for love of his work.
For one week Joseph remained in Ivan's rooms. At the end of this time
he, now fairly well recovered from the effects of his long privation,
removed to the new rooms provided for him by Ivan, Nicholas Rubinstein,
and four or five more intimates who had become interested in the young
fellow's career. With these rooms, of which the rent for three months
was already paid, went a purse of five hundred roubles:--far more than
enough, Joseph protested, to keep him during the ten months that would
elapse before the autumn _salon_ which would, he hoped, exhibit his
first picture.

The young Pole made no trouble about accepting this help from his sudden
friends. Nevertheless, his gratitude was well-expressed and patently
sincere. Nicholas Rubinstein alone, felt some secret, uncorroborated
doubts about the character of the boy; but he was too doubtful of his
perceptions not to abuse even his own _alter ego_ for a pessimistic
cynic. And when, within the month, he received from the protege a small
portrait of himself, in which the likeness was so striking that it
excused every fault of execution, he tried hard to take Joseph to his
genial heart as, years ago, he had taken Ivan, on sight.

Every member of the group who had helped him received similar testimony
of the stranger's gratitude. But of them all only the picture of Ivan, a
pastel, in which the face alone was thrown out by the light of a red
lamp, and the rest of the figure, seated at a piano, remained deep in
shadow, was in any way remarkable for its execution. This, however,
impressionistic though it is, remains to this day the one thoroughly
characteristic portrait of Gregoriev; albeit in later life he sat for,
and at the request of, three great artists. This little picture,
however, being recognized as something remarkable, went into the _salon_
in the following October, and received the first medal for
pastels--completely overtopping the more elaborate oil which had also
been accepted, and which got a mention.--Truly, the Pole's second start
in life bade fair to be as sensationally successfu