82 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 



sented her to his wife, who spoke English with some fluency, 

 and as she had a little time to spare, he took her to the Beer 

 House, where they sat at the professors' table. It was so called 

 because a number of the university instructors, lawyers, doc- 

 tors, and scientists met there for an hour or so each evening 

 and discussed all sorts of subjects, special or general. 



After a long, tedious ride to Paris, the weather being stormy, 

 she was ill for more than a fortnight, and unable to "record 

 events in chronological order." Then she fell in with "a dis- 

 tinctly artistic set," and so did not push forward her scientific 

 opportunities as she would have desired. But she visited the 

 School of Pharmacy and got there some new ideas and learned 

 that there were lectures at the Jardin des Plantes. 



She visited the wonderful picture collection of M. Theo- 

 dore Duret. Among them were seventeen Monets, which he 

 had bought some time before when they still brought small 

 prices. Duret informed her that, having his pictures, he wished 

 for no wife. He slept on a low couch, which he called his bed, 

 in order that he might give some turkeys, by Monet, a good 

 position and light. She noticed on his table a new work on 

 Spinoza, and asked him if he was an admirer. He seemed 

 pleased to find her enthusiastic. He asked her if she liked 

 Wagner, and when she replied in the affirmative, he said 

 those things all went together. He then gave her his book 

 and a letter of introduction to Whistler. 



She was delighted with the magnificent collection of Japan- 

 ese engravings and pictures which M. Bing had gathered 

 together. She spent an afternoon and evening at his house 

 looking over his treasures. She was amazed at the immense 

 variety in Japanese combs, many with exquisite crystal tips. 

 She also was fascinated with a "kind of jade green enamel 

 quite elaborately ornamented with gold tracings." At his 

 house, she met M. Gonze, the editor of " Les Beaux Arts," a 

 great authority on Japanese painting. 



By the twenty-second of November, Miss Abbott was in 

 London again, full of zeal for her future work, and making 

 arrangements for an ample supply of seeds, plants, and drugs 

 which she found she could secure through Christy. This 



