This conviction, to which the mind of Ellison came reluctantly, did not by any means help him to a better state of feeling. He had closed his studio at the East, just as he was beginning to get sitters enough to secure a pretty fair income, and was in a strange place, where people were yet too busy in subduing nature’s ruder features to think much of the arts. He was the only painter in town; yet he did not receive an order. Occasionally one and another called at his rooms, looked at his pictures, asked his prices, and talked about having some portraits taken. But it never went beyond this.
Steadily the sum of money they had brought with them diminished, and nothing came in to supply the waste. To go back again was, to one of Ellison’s temperament, next to impossible; and even if he returned, he felt now no certainty of being able to do so well as when he left. His unhappiness, which he could not conceal, troubled Clara, who understood its ground. He was talking, one day, in a desponding mood, of his doubtful prospects, when Clara said to him,
“There is no need, Alfred, of your feeling so troubled. We have enough to live on, certain, for the next four or five years, even if you do not paint a portrait; to say nothing of the property in dispute, which will, without doubt, come, with a clear title, into our possession before a very long time.”
“All very true,” replied Alfred. “But that consideration doesn’t help me any. I cannot see your property wasting away without feeling unhappy. It is for me to increase it; whereas, now, I am the cause of its diminution.”
“Alfred, why will you talk thus?” said Clara, in a distressed tone of voice. “Why will you always talk of my property? When I gave you myself, did not all I possessed become as much yours as mine?”
Alfred sat silent.
“We need not remain here,” resumed Clara, “any longer than it will be useful.”
“I cannot go back to Philadelphia,” said Alfred, quickly. “At least not until the business upon which we came has reached a favorable termination.”
Clara did not ask why he said this; for she comprehended clearly his feelings.