of a future he was fated
never to enjoy.

But these differences of character, so far from disturbing, rather
cemented their friendship; and while Warner (notwithstanding his
advantage of age) paid involuntary deference to the stronger character
of Clarence, he, in his turn, derived that species of pleasure by which
he was most gratified, from the affectionate and unenvious interest
Clarence took in his speculations of future distinction, and the
unwearying admiration with which he would sit by his side, and watch the
colours start from the canvas, beneath the real though uncultured genius
of the youthful painter.

Hitherto, Warner had bounded his attempts to some of the lesser efforts
of the art; he had now yielded to the urgent enthusiasm of his nature,
and conceived the plan of an historical picture. Oh! what sleepless
nights, what struggles of the teeming fancy with the dense brain, what
labours of the untiring thought wearing and intense as disease itself,
did it cost the ambitious artist to work out in the stillness of his
soul, and from its confused and conflicting images, the design of this
long meditated and idolized performance! But when it was designed;
when shape upon shape grew and swelled, and glowed from the darkness of
previous thought upon the painter's mind; when, shutting his eyes in the
very credulity of delight, the whole work arose before him, glossy with
its fresh hues, bright, completed, faultless, arrayed as it were, and
decked out for immortality,--oh! then what a full and gushing moment of
rapture broke like a released stream upon his soul! What a recompense
for wasted years, health, and hope! What a coronal to the visions and
transports of Genius: brief, it is true, but how steeped in the very
halo of a light that might well be deemed the glory of heaven!

But the vision fades, the gorgeous shapes sweep on into darkness, and,
waking from his revery, the artist sees before him only the dull walls
of his narrow chamber; the canvas stretched a blank upon its frame; the
works, maimed, crude, unfinished, of an inexperienced hand, lying idly
around; and feels himself--himself, but one moment before the creator of
a world of wonders, the master spirit of shapes glorious and majestical
beyond the shapes of men-dashed down from his momentary height, and
despoiled both of his sorcery and his throne.

It was just in such a moment that Warner, starting up, saw Linden (who
had silently entered his room