United States or Spain ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"It must be a pleasant occupation for you in your present prosperity," said I, "to look back sometimes at the gradual processes by which you passed from poverty to competence, and from that to the wealth you now enjoy." "Gradual, did you say?" cried Mr. Boxsious; "it wasn't gradual at all.
It had been subscribed for by the "Municipal Authorities and Resident Inhabitants" of Tidbury-on-the-Marsh; and it was to be presented, when done, to Mrs. Boxsious, "as a slight but sincere token" and so forth. A timely recommendation from one of my kindest friends and patrons placed the commission for painting the likeness in my lucky hands; and I was instructed to attend on a certain day at Mr.
That was rather a curious case, Mr. Artist. Some men might be shy of mentioning it; I never was shy in my life and I mention it right and left everywhere the whole case, just as it happened, except the names. Catch me ever committing myself to mentioning names! Mum's the word, sir, with yours to command, Thomas Boxsious."
With these words he nodded at me approvingly, and jumped into the high chair that I had placed for him with the alacrity of a young man. "I say, Mr. "Not many," I said. "I should not be a poor man if commissions for life-size portraits often fell in my way." "You poor!" exclaimed Mr. Boxsious, contemptuously. "I dispute that point with you at the outset.
I'm not young, and I'm not touchy I'm Boxsious, the lawyer; the only man in the world who can't be insulted, try it how you like!" He chuckled as he said this, and walked away to the window. It was quite useless to take anything he said seriously, so I finished preparing my palette for the morning's work with the utmost serenity of look and manner that I could possibly assume.
"Now, then, Mr. Artist," cried the voice, "do you call that getting ready for work? Where are your paints and brushes, and all the rest of it? My name's Boxsious, and I'm here to sit for my picture." I turned round, and confronted a little man with his legs astraddle, and his hands in his pockets.
Boxsious, in the interest of the Town Council also," said I, "to ask you if your notion of the proper way of sitting for your portrait is to walk about the room!" "Aha! well put devilish well put!" returned Mr. Boxsious; "that's the only sensible thing you have said since you entered my house; I begin to like you already."
The beginning of an excellent connection which I succeeded in establishing in and around that respectable watering-place, Tidbury-on-the-Marsh, was an order for a life-size oil portrait of a great local celebrity one Mr. Boxsious, a solicitor, who was understood to do the most thriving business of any lawyer in the town. Boxsious in promoting and securing the prosperity of the town."
Boxsious uttered this fatal prophecy with extraordinary complacency, nodding and smiling out of the window all the time at the unfortunate man who had rashly tried to provoke him. When his favorite enemy was out of sight, he turned away, and indulged himself in a brisk turn or two up and down the room.
Fortunately for me, the Town Council approved of the portrait when it was done. Mr. Boxsious, however, objected to them as being much too easy to please. He did not dispute the fidelity of the likeness, but he asserted that I had not covered the canvas with half paint enough for my money. It was a sad day for me when Mr.
Word Of The Day