156 MEMOIRS OF 



if he could, he would have prevented their wishes, inquir- 

 ing if they had all they required in their own rooms, sum- 

 moning them to the drawing-room, if, by chance, any one 

 arrived whom he thought they would like to see, expressly 

 inviting those to his house who had excited either their cu- 

 riosity or interest, and devising every thing he could think 

 of for their enjoyment or entertainment. At the time when 

 Paris was half mad about the Greeks, he suddenly re-ap- 

 peared, after he had taken leave of us, with a beautiful 

 Greek boy, the son of Colocotroni, whom he had accidentally 

 met as he quitted the Jardin ; but, fancying that we should 

 like to be acquainted with this intelligent, animated child, 

 he took the trouble of coming back on purpose to present 

 him to us. He frequently walked, or rode home in a cabriolet, 

 in order to lend his carriage to the ladies of his house ; if a 

 wish was expressed to see a scarce book that his own im- 

 mense library did not contain, he would bring it home from 

 the Institute for inspection ; and, while carrying on the 

 most important duties of the savant and the legislator, he 

 yet found time to think of others and their trifling desires. 

 Now and then, when the summer lessened some of his 

 heavy public duties, he would take a walk with us ; and no 

 schoolboy, with permission to go out of bounds, could set 

 off with more dehght than we ail did. Sometimes he 

 would confine himself to the Jardin ; and in one of these 

 more limited excursions he was attracted by the brilliant ap- 

 pearance of the Coreopsis tinctoria. which was then new in 

 France, and which he saw for the first time during this ram- 

 ble. He in vain inquired the name of us, and we continu- 

 ed our walk. On returning to the house, he quitted us at 

 the door, and, in about half an hour, he re-appeared, and, 

 stopping, for an instant, as he descended to his carriage, he 

 said, " Ladies, I have been to M. Deleuze (a learned bota- 

 nist of the Jardin,) and ascertained the name of the flow- 

 er :" he then gave it us, genus, species, country, and the 

 reason for its appellation, and, making his bow, retired, per- 

 fectly happy at the knowledge he had acquired and im- 

 parted. As in this trifling circumstance, so was it in all 

 things ; he never hesitated saying when he did not know ] 

 he never rested till he did know, if the means of acquiring 

 the information were within his reach \, and, once known. 



