290 MEMOIRS OF 



lume to which he had been referring before his 

 departure, and which was generally left open 

 upon his table, to be again used on his return ; 

 for he had the happy faculty of resuming his 

 subject at any moment, in any place, and at any 

 part, even in the middle of a sentence. Wait- 

 ing, then, till his carriage was driven from the 

 door, bearing him away for several hours to his 

 administrative duties, we went up to his room, 

 took possession of the book, and enquiring the 

 hour of his return, fled back with it five minutes 

 before it was wanted. To be sure, in conse- 

 quence of our having been a little too late on 

 one or two occasions, — a circumstance which he 

 bore with surprising good humour, — we used 

 occasionally to see some of his household arrive 

 at our hotel, in breathless haste, to enquire for a 

 volume which had long been missing. Generally 

 speaking, we were innocent of the misdemeanor j 

 but such was his indulgent goodness to us, that 

 he not only facilitated every desire, every endea- 

 vour to obtain improvement, but even allowed 

 us to publish, for the first time, some of his own 

 drawings of Mollusca. He had no idea of exclu- 

 sion towards any one who he thought would 

 make a proper use of the materials he could fur- 

 nish ; so that we had only to ask, and orders were 



