382 Life of Audubon, 



drance, and introduced ourselves without any introducer. 

 " The Baron was not present, but we were told by a 

 good-loking young gentleman that he would come in in 

 a few minutes ; and so he did. Soon a corpulent man 

 appeared, liitching up his trousers, and a face red with 

 the exertion of walking, and without noticing any one 

 present, dropped his fat body into a comfortable chair, 

 as if caring for no one else in this wide world but him- 

 self "While the Baron sat, we stood, with our hats held 

 respectfully in our hands. I stepped forward, and with 

 a bow tendered him my credentials. ' Pray, sir,' said the 

 man of golden consequence, ' is this a letter of business, 

 or is it a mere letter of introduction ? ' This I could not 

 well answer, for I had not read the contents of it ,and 

 I was forced to answer rather awkwardly that I could 

 not tell. The banker then opened the letter, read it with 

 the manner of one who was looking only at the temporal 

 side of things, and after reading it said, * This is only a 

 letter of introduction, and I expect from its contents that 

 you are the publisher of some book or other and need 

 my subscription.' 



" Had a man the size of a mountain spoken to me 

 in that arrogant style in America, I should have indig- 

 nantly resented it ; but where I then was it seemed best 

 to swallow and digest it as well as I could. So in reply 

 to the offensive arrogance of this banker, I said I should 

 be honored by his subscription to the ' Birds of America.' 

 ' Sir, ' he said, ' I never sign my name to any subscription 

 list, but you may send in your work and I will pay for a 

 copy of it. Gentlemen, I am busy, I wish you good- 

 morning.' We were busy men, too, and so bowing re- 

 spectfully, we retired, pretty well satisfied with the small 

 slice of his opulence which our labor was likely to obtain. 



" A few days afterwards I sent the first volume of my 

 work half bound, and all the numbers besides, then pub- 



