62 LIFE OP AUDUBON. 



me to lay down my portfolio in the lobby. I felt inclined to 

 walk off without farther comment, but the thought of furthering 

 my prospects in connection with the expedition induced me to 

 submit. In half an hour he returned with an officer, and with 

 an air more becoming asked me into his private room. Yet I 

 could see in his expression that feeding of selfish confidence 

 which always impairs in some degree the worth of the greatest 

 man who has it. ^ The perspiration ran down my face as I 

 showed him my drawings and laid them on the floor. An officer 

 who was with the artist, looking at the drawings, said with an 

 oath that they were handsome. Yanderlyn made a like 

 remark, and I felt comforted. Although he failed in painting 

 women himself, he spoke disparagingly of my own portraits ; 

 said they were too hard, and were too strongly drawn. He sat 

 down and wrote his note while I was thinking of my journey to 

 the Pacific, and I cared not a picayune for his objections to my 

 portraits so that my prospects of going with the expedition were 

 furthered. Vanderlyn gave me a very complimentary note, in 

 which he said that he never had seen anything superior to my 

 drawings in any country, and for which kindness I was very 

 thankful. His friend, the officer, followed me to the door, asked 

 the price of my portraits, and very courteously asked me to 

 paint his likeness." 



