The Model Millionaire · an appearance of poverty and a costly kindness
Keep Hughie’s allowance, the Colonel’s condition and the gift distinct · Compare an artist’s view of the model with Hughie’s response · Trace the disclosure, expected apology and actual wedding present
Section P3-2028 · 2028–2030 · Set Text (Prose)
Exam scope and assessment notes
0408 preparation for exam year(s) 2029, 2030. The assessment changes in 2028; follow the component and selected texts for your year. Original StudyForA reading and writing practice for the 2029–2030 Stories of Ourselves Volume 3 prose option. Teaching and practice are available for 7 of the ten prescribed stories. The remaining 3 members and full-selection workshops need substantive teaching. Both complete 2029 and 2030 selection entries remain content gaps. Prepare all ten members if your centre selects this anthology option; not every prose alternative is compulsory. The pathway links complete primary readings and prints selected older public-domain excerpts. Achebe’s, Desai’s and Danticat’s protected stories are not reproduced; use the linked reading and centre anthology beside the original commentary and tasks. These are not Cambridge examination passages or a reproduction of the protected anthology. Translation, spelling, punctuation and paragraph layout may differ from the prescribed edition. Bracketed block counters are navigation aids, not original line numbers. Models illustrate supported arguments and do not award Cambridge marks or grades. Alternative supported interpretations can be valid. Qualified literature-teacher review and calibrated full papers remain unfinished. This is not the different 2025 or 2026–2028 Volume 2 selection. Revised coursework requires complete drama works, not these stories. Paper 3 is closed book: 90 minutes, one extract response and one whole-text essay, 25 marks each.
Before you begin
- Confirm your examination year is 2029 or 2030 and your centre has selected the complete ten-story Volume 3 option. Read the complete story in the centre’s anthology before analysing an extract. Private candidates cannot enter 0408.
Work on paper. Try each question before revealing help, and explain why your method works.
Quick readiness check
What should support a claim about a literary text?
What you will learn
- Keep Hughie’s allowance, the Colonel’s condition and the gift distinct
- Compare an artist’s view of the model with Hughie’s response
- Trace the disclosure, expected apology and actual wedding present
The Model Millionaire · kindness and corrected expectations
- Read the complete story. For passage work, locate the specified scene in your centre’s anthology and connect it with earlier and later events.
- Write before opening the model. Explain the effect of precise evidence on the question.
- Bracketed block counters are StudyForA aids. Use your centre’s anthology for exact wording, translation and paragraph layout.
Original self-review practice, not official Cambridge questions, marked scripts, coursework or calibrated full timed papers. The linked reading edition is not certified identical to the prescribed anthology. Prepare all ten stories if selecting this option; models are not the only valid interpretations.
A gift made without the later knowledge
The sitter’s identity has not yet been disclosed to Hughie. Read the studio discussion in the complete story before this extract.
Wilde · the unexpected sovereign
[1] After some time the servant came in, and told Trevor that the framemaker wanted to speak to him.
[2] 'Don't run away, Hughie,' he said, as he went out, 'I will be back in a moment.'
[3] The old beggar-man took advantage of Trevor's absence to rest for a moment on a wooden bench that was behind him. He looked so forlorn and wretched that Hughie could not help pitying him, and felt in his pockets to see what money he had. All he could find was a sovereign and some coppers. 'Poor old fellow' he thought to himself, 'he wants it more than I do, but it means no hansoms for a fortnight'; and he walked across the studio and slipped the sovereign into the beggar's hand.
[4] The old man started, and a faint smile flitted across his withered lips. 'Thank you, sir' he said, 'thank you.' Then Trevor arrived, and Hughie took his leave, blushing a little at what he had done. He spent the day with Laura, got a charming scolding for his extravagance, and had to walk home.
1. How does Wilde make Hughie’s gesture generous without making him financially successful?
Compare after trying
The account places the sovereign beside the remaining small coins, so the gift has a perceptible cost within Hughie’s circumstances. His thought about losing hired cabs for a fortnight makes that cost comic but still real to him. The apparently miserable sitter draws pity before any identity or reward is known.
Hughie’s blush, Laura’s affectionate scolding and the walk home keep the gesture within an amiable portrait of impractical generosity. They do not show a successful business calculation. The later disclosure changes what the reader knows about the recipient, while preserving what Hughie intended at the moment he gave.
Why this response fits
- Use the money, anticipated inconvenience and actual return journey.
- Distinguish present intention from the outcome disclosed later.
An apology becomes a wedding present
This is the final sequence after Trevor has disclosed the model’s identity and Hughie has gone home embarrassed.
Wilde · the visitor, gift and wedding
[1] The next morning, as he was at breakfast, the servant brought him up a card on which was written, 'Monsieur Gustave Naudin, de la part de M. le Baron Hausberg.' 'I suppose he has come for an apology,' said Hughie to himself; and he told the servant to show the visitor up.
[2] An old gentleman with gold spectacles and grey hair came into the room, and said, in a slight French accent, 'Have I the honour of addressing Monsieur Erskine?'
[3] Hughie bowed.
[4] 'I have come from Baron Hausberg' he continued. 'The Baron———'
[5] 'I beg, sir, that you will offer him my sincerest apologies,' stammered Hughie.
[6] 'The Baron' said the old gentleman with a smile, 'has commissioned me to bring you this letter'; and he extended a sealed envelope.
[7] On the outside was written, 'A wedding present to Hugh Erskine and Laura Merton, from an old beggar,' and inside was a cheque for £10,000.
[8] When they were married Alan Trevor was the best man, and the Baron made a speech at the wedding breakfast.
[9] 'Millionaire models,' remarked Alan, 'are rare enough; but, by Jove, model millionaires are rarer still!'
1. How does the ending change the force of the word model?
Compare after trying
Hughie’s expectation of an apology makes the visitor seem initially like another consequence of his embarrassment. The letter instead identifies a wedding present from the person he treated as a beggar, and its amount matches the Colonel’s earlier financial condition. The subsequent wedding makes that change an actual outcome.
Trevor’s closing verbal reversal turns the title’s sitter into an example of conduct. The Baron has modelled poverty for a painting and now displays generosity through the present. I find the ending warm but still interested in wealth: kindness is recognised, while the social threshold is met by money rather than abolished.
Why this response fits
- Connect the final amount with the earlier obstacle.
- Explain the wordplay through both artistic role and conduct without inventing an investment scheme.
The narrator makes financial success a social test
The opening pronouncements place income before charm or romance, but the comic portrait of Hughie encourages affection as well as criticism. He has failed at several occupations and lives on an aunt’s allowance of £200 a year; he is not entirely without an income. Laura loves him, and her father likes him, yet the Colonel will not consider engagement until Hughie has £10,000 of his own. The financial condition therefore separates existing affection from permission to marry. Treat the narrator’s polished generalisations as part of the comedy rather than simple practical advice to every reader.
The same appearance invites different responses
Alan Trevor values the apparently poor sitter as a striking artistic subject. Hughie sees apparent misery and asks about a model’s payment beside the much larger price of the picture. The discussion sets aesthetic value and human need beside each other. When Alan goes out, Hughie gives the sitter a sovereign, expecting to lose the use of hired cabs for a fortnight. He acts before knowing that the man is Baron Hausberg, a wealthy patron posing in clothes supplied by Trevor. The gift is therefore not a calculated investment or a payment arranged to obtain marriage money.
The disclosure changes knowledge before it changes fortune
Trevor later reveals the sitter’s identity after learning about the sovereign. His suggestions about investing it and paying interest are comic speculation, not a narrated transaction. Hughie is embarrassed and expects the next morning’s visitor to seek an apology. Instead, the visitor brings a letter and a £10,000 cheque from the Baron as a wedding present. The story then reports the marriage, Trevor as best man and the Baron’s wedding speech. The final play on model distinguishes a millionaire who sits for a picture from one whose conduct becomes exemplary.
Sources for this lesson
Pause and explain
Does Hughie know he is giving the sovereign to a millionaire?
Worked example
Why is “Hughie buys the Baron’s support with a sovereign” inaccurate?
Show the worked solution
- At the moment of giving, Hughie thinks the man needs the money.
- He anticipates inconvenience to himself, not repayment.
- The much later gift depends on a revealed identity and generosity not known beforehand.
Answer The result rewards a misinformed but generous action; it does not make that action a knowingly negotiated bargain.
Try a topic test
Choose Easy, Normal or Difficult. Save your answers and open worked review after finishing.
Test this topic →From guided practice to a new situation
Write your answer and reasoning first. Use a hint only if you are stuck. The model solution is for self-checking; your written work is not automatically marked.
Explain what the £10,000 condition does to the romance.
Give me a hint
Separate Laura’s affection from the father’s permission.
Compare my reasoning
- The pair already love one another.
- The Colonel makes money a condition of engagement.
Existing affection is subject to an external financial threshold, which makes the later gift consequential.
Look for these in your work
- Use both affection and condition
- Avoid an invented rejection
Compare Hughie’s pity with Trevor’s interest in the sitter.
Give me a hint
Use the discussion of payment and the later language about rags.
Compare my reasoning
- Hughie treats the apparent need as a reason to help.
- Trevor sees the clothes and face as valuable for a picture.
The same appearance becomes a human claim for one observer and artistic material for another; explain the contrast without assuming Trevor never values generosity.
Look for these in your work
- Use two perspectives
- Qualify the character judgement
Revise “The visitor demands an apology and leaves Hughie unable to marry”.
Give me a hint
Compare expectation with the envelope and narrated wedding.
Compare my reasoning
- Hughie expects a complaint and begins to apologise.
- The visitor delivers a present, and the story subsequently reports marriage.
The expected humiliation is reversed into material assistance; the wedding is narrated, not merely hoped for.
Look for these in your work
- Track expectation and event
- Use the actual aftermath
Common mistakes
- Do not treat Trevor’s joking investment suggestion as the actual mechanism of the wedding gift.
- Do not say Laura rejects Hughie because she does not love him.
What can you explain now?
Does Hughie know he is giving the sovereign to a millionaire?
Compare with the explanation
No; he believes the sitter is poor and acts before the Baron’s identity is disclosed.
His lack of that knowledge makes the gesture different from a calculated attempt to obtain a reward.
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Make it stick
Does Hughie know he is giving the sovereign to a millionaire?
If you needed the solution, close it and solve the problem again from a blank page. A correct answer is stronger when you can explain the reason for each step.