ven half as much."

"Oh, no you wouldn't," was the prompt retort. "You'd want to know a
great deal more, just as I do--that is, if you were any good. There are
a thousand things I want to find out. The silk business, you see, is to
be my trade. I have an uncle in the weaving mills at Lyons, and some
day when I know more he is to find a place for me there. So I am
learning all I can about the classifying and reeling of cocoons; and I
have also raised a few silkworms so as to be familiar with the very
beginnings of the industry. Soon I am to go into the filature to help
with the reeling; and after that they have promised to send me on into
the throwing mills, where the filament is twisted into thread
preparatory to weaving. Then I shall be ready to go to Lyons and see how
silks, satins, and velvets are made. Lyons, you know, is a famous
silk-making city. It was there that Philippe de la Salle, the great silk
designer, lived. Because he did such beautiful work he was decorated by
Louis XVI with the Order of Saint Michel and was given a pension of six
mille livres. Think of that! Alas, such things do not happen now. That
was long ago--between 1723 and 1803. His good fortune did not, however,
last long, for the Revolution came, and the court which gave him his
money went out of power. Still the people of Lyons were proud of him and
despite the fact that he had been a court favorite they provided for
him lodgings in the Palais Saint Pierre, where he lived for the rest of
his life."

"I am afraid I do not know much about what he did," said Pierre with
engaging frankness.

"Why, it was Philippe de la Salle who designed the silk hangings for the
chamber of Marie Antoinette, and who originated the Empire motif of the
wreath of laurel; he also designed silks gorgeous with garlands
intertwined with ribbon; or decorated with baskets of fruit and flowers;
and sometimes he made use of great birds. He has done some of the finest
silk designs ever woven. My uncle told me, however, that years and years
before that wonderful silks were made; and that fragments showing
beautiful designs are in the museums of Berlin and Nuremberg, as well as
in our own Cluny Museum, and the great museums of London. He said there
were also marvelous church vestments of even earlier date and also some
very ancient Byzantine silks splendid with griffins, eagles, and lions.
Some day, perhaps, I shall go to see them, and maybe I myself may learn
to weave such