d he ended by saying that young people,
especially the artistic, always have a turn for the romantic, and set
great store by withered flowers and the ribbons which some beloved girl
has worn, and go out of themselves altogether over any piece of work
done by the hands of those divinities; so that Albertine had better
knit a little purse for Edmund, and, if she saw no particular
objection, even put into it a little lock of her bonny nut-brown hair,
and thus get out of any little obligation they might be thought to be
under to him. To do this she had his full permission, and he undertook
to answer to Tussmann on the subject. Albertine, who was not yet taken
into her father's confidence as to his projects, had not the remotest
notion what Tussmann might have to say to the matter, and did not take
the trouble to inquire.

That very evening Edmund had his painting gear taken to Bosswinkel's
house, and the next morning he made his appearance there for the first
sitting.

He begged the Commissionsrath to think of the very happiest moment of
his life. For instance, when his dead wife first said she loved him, or
when Albertine was born, or when he unexpectedly saw some dear friend
whom he had thought to be lost to him; and to try and look as he had
done _then_.

"Wait a moment, Mr. Lehsen," said Bosswinkel; "I know what to do. One
day, about three months ago, I got a letter from Hamburg telling me I
had drawn a big prize in the lottery. I ran to my daughter with the
letter open in my hand. That was the happiest moment I ever had in all
my life. Let's choose _that_ one; and, just to place the whole thing
more vividly before your eyes--and mine--I'll go and get the letter,
and be taken with it in my hand--just as I was when it came."

So Edmund had no help but to paint Bosswinkel accordingly; and he
wouldn't be content, either, unless the writing on the letter was
rendered legibly and distinctly, word for word, as follows:--

"Honoured Sir,
"I have the honour to inform you----"

and so forth; moreover, the envelope had to be portrayed lying on a
little table, so that the address on it, displaying all the
Commissionsrath's official titles written out at full length, could be
clearly read. The very postmark Edmund had to copy with the utmost
minuteness.

For the rest, he made a portrait of a well-looking, good-tempered,
handsomely-dressed man, who _did_ display, in some of the features of
his face, a more or