At the age of twenty-two young Ellison, who had for some two or three years been devoting himself earnestly to the art of drawing and painting, found himself hemmed in with difficulties and discouragements that seemed almost insurmountable. The goal he aspired to win was so far distant that his eyes could scarcely reach it, and between lay barriers that he sadly feared he would never be able to pass. Without an income, and without friends to sustain him for a few years until he could command the patronage of those who loved the arts, how was he to sustain himself? To go abroad and study the works of the old masters in Italy was the dearest wish of his life; but there was no hope of this—at least not in the present, for the little profitable work he was able to procure scarcely gave him food and decent raiment, and was not, when completed, in a style of art at all flattering to his vanity.
“Oh! if I only had the means of studying abroad for two or three years, and not thus be compelled to disgrace myself and the profession by painting mere daubs of portraits in order to get my daily bread,” would fall from his lips over and over again, as he threw aside his brush and pallet and yielded himself up to desponding thoughts. His hopes were too ardent and his imagination too bright for the cold realities of the present. Patience and perseverance amid difficulties were not the leading elements of his character. A lover of art, and possessing a high appreciation of the beautiful, all that he had yet been able to accomplish appeared in his eyes so poor and defective, that he rather shrunk from than courted public attention.
“If I could but hide myself away for two or three years, and devote all that time to the study and practice of art, how happy I would be! Then I could come before the public and present something worthy of the native ability I possess, and worthy to stand beside the productions of those who have won an honored name in the profession.” Thus would he indulge in dreams of what for the present was unattainable, and idly repose for a season under a sense of bitter discouragement.
As Ellison was social in his feelings and possessed of many qualities that made him an agreeable companion, he had a wide circle of acquaintance and was liked wherever he went. Among those into whose society he was occasionally thrown was a young lady named Clara Deville, who was understood to possess, in her own right, a property valued at twenty thousand dollars. She had two brothers, each of whom had received, in the settlement of their father’s estate, a like amount. For Clara, Ellison had entertained little beyond an ordinary feeling of friendship. She was an agreeable companion at any time, though she did not possess a lively imagination nor was her temperament poetic. The sterling points in her character were, strong good sense and a quick appreciation of the rights of others. Though plain in her person, few after becoming acquainted with her thought of this, and if it were said to one of her intimate acquaintances that she was rather homely than otherwise, the remark would not meet with a ready assent, for none who knew her well thought her homely.
Ellison, though he mingled a good deal in society and was a favorite with young ladies, had not thought of marriage, at least not of a present marriage. While he had not the means of supporting a wife he deemed it prudent to keep his heart free from all love entanglements.
One day a friend who understood his position in society said to him —
“Why don’t you marry?”
“Marry!” exclaimed Ellison. “I would as soon think of jumping into the river.”
“Why not?”