TO A SINCERE FRIEND, GEORGE A. MONRO, Esq., THIS NOVEL IS DEDICATED WITH EVERY GOOD WISH BY THE AUTHOR. ERNEST BASIL. PROLOGUE. CHAPTER I. THE STUDIO AND THE DRAWING SCHOOL. ARTISTS are in general lofty birds literally in their localities, they ought to be so in their ideas also let us hope that those who are not, : form the exception to the rule. Where they most do congregate in New York, their studios are generally at the top of the houses, so as to enable them to get all the light possible. Up you go, flight after flight of steps, till weary and panting you arrive at a door with a couple of bells-one belonging to a portrait painter, Mr. Talbot, the other to a landscape painter, Mr. Carlton. Both these artists take pupils VOL. I. B |