riety of talents, though
nobody who read her poems or heard her songs agreed with her.

Then came a crisis in her affairs. She was thrown on her resources
without a moment's warning. She had to earn her living or starve. She
had plenty of energy, and was willing to work. She took a rapid review
of her powers. Then the scales fell from her eyes. She felt very
doubtful if there was one among her accomplishments which would furnish
bread for her. She would have said that all her conceit was gone. But
it was not so. As her need was so urgent, she tried to find work first
in one way and then in another. She was prepared to have the editors
reject her manuscripts, and she was not surprised that she could not
sell her pictures; but it was amazing to be told that her grammar and
spelling were faulty, and it was hard to see the amusement in the faces
of the art-dealers when they regarded her most cherished paintings.

No woman can earn a living without some mortifying experiences, but the
more conceited she is the more such experiences she meets, because she
is inclined to attempt things preposterously beyond her. So this poor
girl who had always held her head high was snubbed by everybody; she was
told the truth with brutal frankness, and in time she learned her
lesson. She was not a dull girl nor a weak girl. There was one thing she
could do well at the outset, though she had so little discrimination in
regard to herself that it did not occur to her that this would be her
lever for moving the world. She was a beautiful housekeeper.

She remembered this finally and acted accordingly. I cannot say that she
enjoyed her experience with a series of widowers, but she did her work
well and was paid for it. She also had a talent--strange to say it was
for drawing. She did not realize this either, for she could not
discriminate enough to see that her amateur work as an artist was at all
different from her amateur singing and playing. At first she had
thought she could do everything well, and then she thought she could do
nothing well. But by slow degrees, and through much tribulation, she
began to set her faculties in order, and when she found her germ of a
talent she cultivated it. Ten years later she was able to support
herself as an engraver.

By this time her one fault had vanished. She was simple and modest and
self-respecting, while she retained the courage and cheerfulness which
had made her attractive as a girl. "If you wish