r picture, comparing it with a
little, two-year-old sketch in oil which he had brought with him.
Presently Joseph moved towards him. Nicholas, watching, saw the young
fellow hesitate, palpably, for an instant, and then speak a few rapid,
low-voiced sentences into Ivan's ear. Ivan's face betrayed a strain of
surprise; but Nicholas saw the nod that accompanied his answer, and knew
that it meant assent--to what, he guessed. Later, when good-byes were
being said, Joseph was somewhat discomfited at the extreme chilliness of
the gruff old man, who had seen what Joseph imagined he had kept
absolutely invisible:--the passing of certain hundred-rouble notes from
Ivan's hand to his own:--Ivan could now so well afford to give!

Late in the afternoon, when the young painter regained his own studio,
he threw himself upon his battered sofa with a sigh of relief that was
half-petulant. He had had an afternoon doubly successful; for he had
taken a long-contemplated plunge. In his pocket was another whole year
of frugality; or a month, one little month, of extravagance. His
question now was, which should it be? If he took a scholarship with
either of his pictures--and how they had been admired to-day!--there, in
itself, was a year's subsistence. Again, would not one or both the
pictures sell, at a good price? The whole wealth of Moscow would pass
through those rooms during the next month. Only take the fancy of a
wealthy man, or woman, and he might say good-bye forever to frugality:
to his whole life of unrelenting poverty.

Ah, how he hated it, all those dreary little shifts that had formed the
laws of his life! How he yearned, how he longed, for a month of
carelessness concerning the state of his pocket!--But what a humiliation
to _ask_ for money--even from great-hearted Ivan! Ivan, with his new
millions--why had he not offered something, instead of letting himself
be dunned? Truly, truly, Providence--_his_ Providence, was a sorry jade!
Tricks enough she had certainly played him: him, to whom she had given
so enormous a secret capability for spending! With a crust for food, a
rag for his covering, a garret for shelter, she had endowed him with
artist-dreams of luxury, with every extravagant desire, and but one,
faint possibility of attainment. One, however, he had; together with a
higher ambition than that for material things. He longed for the best
sort of fame: was ready to do the best of work to gain it: provided only
it should al