Authors: George W. M. Reynolds,James Malcolm Rymer
The great painter was about forty years of age, and
dwelt in a splendid house in Bloomsbury Square, The rooms on the third floor
were his studio, as he required a clear and good light. He accepted the
services of Ellen Monroe as a copy, and remunerated the old woman out of his
own pocket, for the introduction. But he required the attendance of his copy
every day from ten till four; and she was accordingly compelled to tell her father
another story to account for these long intervals of absence. She now assured
him that she was engaged to work at the residence of a family in Bloomsbury
Square; and the old man believed her.
Her countenance having embellished statues, was now
transferred to canvass. Her Grecian features and classic head appeared
surmounted with the crescent of Diana, the helmet of Minerva, and the crown of
Juno. The painter purchased dresses suitable to the characters which he wished
her to adopt; and, although she was frequently compelled to appear before him,
in a state which at first was strongly repugnant to her modesty - with naked
bust, and naked arms, and naked
legs - the feeling of shame gradually wore away. Thus, though in body she
remained pure and chaste, yet in soul was she gradually hardened to the
sentiments of maiden delicacy and female reserve!
It is true that she retained her virtue - because it
was not tempted. The artist saw not before him a lovely creature of warm flesh
and blood; he beheld nothing but a beautiful and symmetrical statue which
served as an original for his heathen divinities and pastoral heroines. And in
this light did he treat her.
He paid her handsomely; and her father and herself were
enabled to remove to better lodgings, and in a more respectable neighbourhood,
than those which had been the scene of so much misery in Golden Lane.
The artist whom Ellen served was a portrait-painter as
well as a delineator of classical subjects. When he was employed to paint the
likeness of some vain and conceited West End daughter of the aristocracy, it
was Ellen's hand - or Ellen's hair - or Ellen's eyes - or Ellen's bust - or
some feature or peculiar beauty of the young maiden, in which the fashionable
lady somewhat resembled her, that figured upon the canvass. Then when the
portrait was finished, the artist would assemble his friends at the same time
that the lady and her friends called to see it; and the artist's friends - well
tutored beforehand - would exclaim, one, "How like is the eye!"
another, "The very mouth!" a third, "The hair to the life
itself!" a fourth, "The exact profile!" - and so on. And all the
while it was Ellen's eye, or Ellen's mouth, or Ellen's hair, or Ellen's
profile, which the enthusiasts admired. Then the lady, flattering herself that
she alone was the original, and little suspecting that the charms of another
had been called in to enhance the beauty of
her
portrait, persuaded her fond and
uxorious husband to double the amount of the price bargained for, and had the
picture set in a very costly frame, to hang in the most conspicuous place in
her mansion.
It happened one-day-that the artist obtained the favour
of a marchioness of forty-six by introducing into her portrait the nose, eyes,
and mouth of that fair young maiden of seventeen. The great lady recommended
him to the Russian Ambassador as the greatest of English painters; and the
ambassador immediately retained him to proceed to St. Petersburgh to transfer
to canvass the physiognomy of the Czar.
Ellen thus lost her employment once more; and again did
she repair to the den of the old hag who had recommended her to the statuary
and the artist.
The step of the maiden was less timid than formerly;
and her look was more confident. She was also dressed in a style which savoured
of coquetry, for her occupation at the artist's had taught her the value of her
charms, and prompted her how to enhance them. She had imbibed the idea that her
beauty was worth much, and should at least produce her a comfortable
livelihood, even if it did not lay the foundation for a fortune. She therefore
occupied all her leisure time in studying how to set it off to the greatest
advantage. Thus dire necessity had compelled that charming young creature to
embrace occupations which awoke all the latent female vanity that had slumbered
in her bosom throughout the period of her pinching poverty, and that now shone
forth in her manner - her gait - her glance - her speech - and her attire.
The old hag observed this change, and was not surprised
- for she was a woman of the world; but she muttered to herself, "A little
while, my dear - and you will suit my purposes altogether."
"I am come again, you see," said Ellen,
seating herself without waiting to be asked. "My artist has left England
suddenly, and I am once more without occupation."
"Have you any money?" demanded the old hag.
"I have three sovereigns left," replied
Ellen.
"You must give me two," said the woman;
"and you must promise me half your first week's earnings, for the new
introduction which I shall presently give you."
Ellen placed two sovereigns in the hand of the beldame;
and the old wretch opened her table drawer to search for something which she
required.
That drawer contained a strange incongruity of
articles. Old valentine letters, knots of faded riband, cards, prophetic
almanacs; tooth powder boxes, and scented oil bottles, all alike empty; the
visiting cards of several noblemen and gentlemen, play-bills, theatrical
journals, masquerade tickets never used, pieces of music, magazines of fashion,
a volume of the "Memoirs of Harriett Wilson," immoral prints, a song
book, some leaves torn from the "Newgate Calendar," medical drugs
wrapped up in papers, a child's caul, pieces of poetry in manuscript, amatory
epistles on sheets of various tints, writs from the Court of Requests,
summonses from police courts, &c. &c. The contents of that filthy
drawer furnished a complete history of that old hag's former life.
The object of the old woman's search was a card, which,
having found it, she handed to the young maiden, saying, " Here is the
address of an eminent sculptor: he requires a model of a bust for the statue of
a great lady who may be said to have no bust at all. You will suit him."
Ellen received the card, and hastened to Halkin Street,
Belgrave Square, where the sculptor resided. She was shown first into a parlour
upon the ground floor, then, when the object of her visit was made known, she
was requested to walk up stairs to the studio of the great man. She found him
contemplating with profound satisfaction a head which he had already cut from
the top part of a block of marble. He was an old man of sixty, and he stooped
in his gait; but his eyes were dark and piercing.
A bargain between the sculptor and Ellen was soon
terminated; and the next morning she entered upon her new employment. Stripped
to the waist, she had to stand in a certain position, for several hours each
day, in the presence of the sculptor. The old man laboured diligently at his
statue, and allowed her little rest; but he paid her munificently, and she was
contented.
The lady, whose statue was thus supposed to be in
progress, called daily, and remained at the sculptor's house for hours. She
always came alone, and sate in the studio the whole time during which her call
lasted: it was therefore imagined by all her friends that she really formed the
model of the statue which was to bear her name. But Ellen's neck - and Ellen's
shoulders - and Ellen's bosom - and Ellen's arms were in truth the pattern of
the bust of that statue which was to be a great sculptor's masterpiece, and to
hand down the name of a great lady to posterity
The very day upon which Ellen was to leave the
sculptor's employment, her services as a model being no longer required, this
great lady happened to observe that she was in want of a nursery governess for
her two young daughters. Ellen ventured to offer herself as a candidate for the
situation. The lady raised her eyes and hands to heaven in astonishment,
exclaiming, "
You
, miss, a companion for my
children! a girl who gets her livelihood by standing half naked in the presence
of any body, as a model!" And the lady was compelled to have recourse to
her scent-bottle to save herself from fainting. She forgot that she would have
herself stood to the sculptor if she had possessed a good bust!
The answer and the behaviour of this lady opened the
eyes of Ellen to the nature of the opinion which the world must now form of
her. She suddenly comprehended the real position which she occupied in society
- about one remove above the unfortunate girls who were the avowed daughters of
crime. Were she now to speak to the world of her virtue, that world would laugh
insultingly in her face. Thus the dire necessity which had urged her upon this
career, began by destroying her sense of female delicacy and shame: it now
destroyed, in her estimation, every inducement to pursue a virtuous career.
Again she sought the dwelling of the old hag: for the fourth
time she demanded the assistance of the beldame.
"It seems, my child," said the old woman,
"that my advice has produced beneficial consequences. Each time that you
cross my threshold I observe that you are freer and lighter in step, and more
choice in your apparel."
"You know that I am not detestably ugly,
mother," answered Ellen, with a smile of complacence; "and surely it
is as cheap to have a gown well made as badly made, and a becoming bonnet as
one altogether out of date."
"Ah! I see that you study the fashions,"
exclaimed the old woman with a sigh - for she recalled to mind the pleasures
and pursuits of her own youthful days, over which she retrospected with
regret:- then, after a pause, she said, "How old are you?"
"Eighteen and a half," replied Ellen.
"And, with all that beauty, is your heart still
unoccupied by the image of some favoured suitor?"
"Oh!" ejaculated Ellen, laughing heartily, so
as to display her brilliant teeth, "I have not thought of that yet. I have
lately read a great deal about love in novels and romances - for I never do any
needlework now, - but I have not experienced the passion. I dare say my time
will come sooner or later;" - and again she laughed. "But, hasten,
mother - I am losing my time: tell me, do you know of farther employment for
me?"
"I am acquainted with a French gentleman of
science at the West End," answered the hag, "who baa invented a means
of taking likenesses by the aid of the sun. I do not know what the process is:
all that concerns me and you is that the Frenchman requires a beautiful woman
to serve as a pattern for his experiments."
"Give me his address," said Ellen, "and
if he engages me I will pay you liberally. You know that you can rely upon
me."
The old woman once more had recourse to her filthy
drawer, in which her present memoranda were mingled with the relics of the
luxury of former days; end taking thence a letter which she had only received
that same morning, she tore off the address for the use of the young maiden.
Ellen, who a few months previously had been accustomed
to work for seventeen or eighteen hours without ceasing, now took a cab to
proceed from the neighbourhood of St. Luke's to Leicester Square. The French
scientific experimentalist was at home; and Ellen was conducted up four flights
of stairs to a species of belvidere, or glass cabinet, built upon the roof of
the house. The windows of this belvidere, and the paper with which the
wood-work of the interior was covered, were of a dark blue, in order to
mitigate the strength of the sun's rays.
Within this belvidere the Frenchman was at work He was a
short, middle-aged, sallow-faced, sharp featured person - entirely devoted to
matters of science, and having no soul for love, pleasure, politics, or any
kind of excitement save his learned pursuits He was now busily employed at a
table covered with copper plates coated with silver, phials of nitric acid
cotton wool, pounce, a camera obscure, several boxes, each of about two feet
square, and other materials necessary for photography.
The Frenchman spoke English tolerably well; and eyeing his
fair visitant from head to foot, he expressed himself infinitely obliged to the
person who had sent her. He then entered into particulars; and Ellen found, to
her surprise, that the photographer was desirous of taking full-length female
portraits in a state of nudity. She drew her veil over her countenance, and was
about to retire in disgust and indignation, when the Frenchman, who was
examining a plate as he spoke, and therefore did not observe the effect his
words had produced upon her, mentioned the price which he proposed to pay her.
Now the artist paid better than the statuary; the sculptor better than the
artist; and the photographer better than the sculptor. She therefore hesitated
no longer; but entered the service of the man of science.
We shall not proceed to any details connected with this
new avocation to which that lovely maiden lent herself. Suffice it to say, that
having sold her countenance to the statuary, her likeness to the artist, and
her bust to the sculptor, she disposed of her whole body to the photographer.
Thus her head embellished images white and bronzed; her features and her figure
were perpetuated in divers paintings; her bust was immortalized in a splendid
statue; and her entire form is preserved, in all attitudes, and on many plates,
in the private cabinet of a photographer at one of the metropolitan Galleries
of Practical Science
At length the photographer was satisfied with the results of
his experiments regarding the action of light upon every part of the human
frame, and Ellen's occupation was again gone.
A tainted soul now resided in a pure body. Every remaining
sentiment of decency and delicacy was crushed - obliterated - destroyed by this
last service. Pure souls have frequently resided in tainted bodies: witness
Lucretia after the outrage perpetrated upon her:- but here was essentially
a foul soul in a chaste and virgin form.
And what dread cause had consummated this sad result? Not
the will of the poor girl for when we first saw her in her cold and cheerless
chamber, her mind was spotless as the Alpine snow. But dire necessity - that
necessity which became an instrument in the old hag's hands to model the young
maiden to her purposes. For it was with ulterior views that the designing
harridan had introduced the poor girl to that career which, without being
actually criminal, led step by step towards criminality The wretch knew the
world well, and was enabled to calculate the influence of exterior
circumstances upon the mind and the passions. After the first conversation
which she had with Ellen, she perceived that the purity of the virgin was not
to be undermined by specious representations, nor by dazzling theories, nor by
delusive sophistry: and the hag accordingly placed the confiding girl upon a
path which while it supplied her with the necessaries of life, gradually
presented to her mind scenes which were calculated to destroy her purity of
thought and chastity of feeling for ever!
When Ellen left the service of the photographer, she
repaired for the fifth time to the dwelling of the hag.