Wednesday, Mar 31, 1886 Went over to Calverts this forenoon and finished the second coat of the model by two oclock when I came to my room and had some lunch and wrote a note. Wood came in and told me Sylvia was very ill with pneumonia. I was going to the social meeting at the Academy this evening but it rained great guns when I came out of the house with violent wind and thunder and lightning so I went back and later came to my room. At the studio entrance I met Gilbert Gaul just starting for the Academy but I told him I was not and uncomfortable and had given up going. He told me Sylva [sic] died about 6 o'clock. His brother and his son were with him, but I understood there was some trouble between him and his wife. Poor fellow. He has had a hard time. Only a short time ago he withdrew from the Artists fund they paying him his share and now there will be nothing for his family. He was a Lieutenant in the war. Mrs. Johnson told me a sad story about the widow of J. Beaufain Irving who had been to [?] with her. She has married again and evidently has no home. She [?] to see Robbins today, Wood told me. As near as I could learn she depends upon charity and has not where to lay her head al[?] she is the mother of ten children some of whom are married and live in the city. It makes one shudder to see what one may come to.
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