`` You need n't blush , dear ; I do n't bear malice ; so let 's forget and forgive . I shall settle things to-morrow , and have a free mind . You are welcome to my money , and I hope I shall live to see you all enjoy it . '' So she did ; for she lived to see Sophy plump , cheery , and care-free ; Polly surrounded by a flock of Lambkins ; Van in possession of a generous slice of the Van Bahr fortune ; Toady revelling in the objects of his desire ; and , best of all , she lived to find that it is never too late to make oneself useful , happy , and beloved . PSYCHE 'S ART `` Handsome is that handsome does . '' I Once upon a time there raged in a certain city one of those fashionable epidemics which occasionally attack our youthful population . It was n't the music mania , nor gymnastic convulsions , nor that wide-spread malady , croquet . Neither was it one of the new dances which , like a tarantula-bite , set every one a twirling , nor stage madness , nor yet that American lecturing influenza which yearly sweeps over the land . No , it was a new disease called the Art fever , and it attacked the young women of the community with great violence . Nothing but time could cure it , and it ran its course to the dismay , amusement , or edification of the beholders , for its victims did all manner of queer things in their delirium . They begged potteries for clay , drove Italian plaster-corkers out of their wits with unexecutable orders got neuralgia and rheumatism sketching perched on fences and trees like artistic hens , and caused a rise in the price of bread , paper , and charcoal , by their ardor in crayoning . They covered canvas with the expedition of scene-painters , had classes , lectures , receptions , and exhibitions , made models of each other , and rendered their walls hideous with bad likenesses of all their friends . Their conversation ceased to be intelligible to the uninitiated , and they prattled prettily of `` chiaro oscuro , French sauce , refraction of the angle of the eye , seventh spinus process , depth and juiciness of color , tender touch , and a good tone . '' Even in dress the artistic disorder was visible ; some cast aside crinoline altogether , and stalked about with a severe simplicity of outline worthy of Flaxman . Others flushed themselves with scarlet , that no landscape which they adorned should be without some touch of Turner 's favorite tint . Some were blue in every sense of the word , and the heads of all were adorned with classic braids , curls tied Hebe-wise , or hair dressed a la hurricane . It was found impossible to keep them safe at home , and , as the fever grew , these harmless maniacs invaded the sacred retreats where artists of the other sex did congregate , startling those anchorites with visions of large-eyed damsels bearing portfolios in hands delicately begrimed with crayon , chalk , and clay , gliding through the corridors hitherto haunted only by shabby paletots , shadowy hats , and cigar smoke . This irruption was borne with manly fortitude , not to say cheerfulness , for studio doors stood hospitably open as the fair invaders passed , and studies from life were generously offered them in glimpses of picturesque gentlemen posed before easels , brooding over master-pieces in `` a divine despair , '' or attitudinizing upon couches as if exhausted by the soarings of genius . An atmosphere of romance began to pervade the old buildings when the girls came , and nature and art took turns . There were peepings and whisperings , much stifled laughter and whisking in and out ; not to mention the accidental rencontres , small services , and eye telegrams , which somewhat lightened the severe studies of all parties .
Half a dozen young victims of this malady met daily in one of the cells of a great art beehive XXXXX `` Raphael 's Rooms , '' and devoted their shining hours to modelling fancy heads , gossiping the while ; for the poor things found the road to fame rather dull and dusty without such verbal sprinklings .
adorned begrimed called cure invaded lectures lightened mention passed posed