at my lace shocks you, although I have painted none
for fifteen years. I vastly prefer scarfs, which you, sir, would
do well yourself to employ. Scarfs, you may believe me, are a
boon to painters, and had you used them you would have acquired
good taste in draping, in which you are deficient. As for those
stuffs, those eloquent cushions, those velvets, to be seen in my
_shop_, it is my opinion that one should pay as much attention as
possible to all such accessories. On this point I have Raphael as
an authority, who never neglected anything of this kind, who
wished everything to be explicit, to be rendered minutely--that
is the language of art--even to the smallest flowers in the
grass. I can, furthermore, quote the example of ancient
sculpture, in which not the most trifling accessories are found
neglected: the draped scarfs which lie so snugly upon nude
figures, and of which mere fragments are bought by real fanciers
to-day, the ornamentation on breastplates, the buskins--all that
is carried out with perfect finish.

"And now, sir, allow me to remark that the word _shop_, which
term you apply to my studio, is scarcely worthy of an artist. I
show my pictures without having money asked at the door. I have
even, to avoid that practise" [then in vogue among the painters
of London], "set aside one day each week for persons of good
standing and such persons as these may see fit to present to me.
I may, therefore, beg you to observe that the word _shop_ is
improper, and that severity never excuses a man from being
polite.

"I have the honour to be, etc."

This letter, which I read to some friends, remained no secret to
London society, and the laugh was not on the side of M. ----, who, all
enmity aside, did not know how to do drapings.

I met a number of compatriots in England whom I had known for years. I
had the felicity of meeting the Count d'Artois once more, at a party
given by Lady Percival, who received a number of exiles. He had grown
stouter, and I really thought him very handsome. A few days later he
honoured me by coming to see my studio. I was out, and I only returned
just as he was going away. But he was good enough to come back and
compliment me upon my portrait of the Prince of Wales, with which he
seemed highly pleased. The Count d'Artois did not go out much into
society. Havin