Page:In the dozy hours, and other papers.djvu/136

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122
IN THE DOZY HOURS.

is not without some small compensations of its own. To realize them, we might compare one of Murillo's dirty, smiling, half-naked beggar boys with an Infanta by Velasquez, or with Moreelzee's charming and unhappy little Princess, who, in spreading ruff and stiff pearl-trimmed stomacher, gazes at us with childish dignity from the wall of Amsterdam's museum. Or we might remember the pretty story of Meyerbeer's little daughter, who, after watching for a long time the gambols of some ragged children in the street, turned sadly from the window, and said, with pathetic resignation, "It is a great misfortune to have genteel parents."