VISIT TO RBnONT:^. 147 



eyebrows, and he smiled as he spoke to me. Miss Cuvier is a 

 most agreeable lady, and opening a book, she asked to read 

 aloud to us all ; and on she went in a clear, weU-aecented tone, 

 from a comic play, well calculated to amuse us for the time, 

 and during the monotony of sitting for a portrait, which is 

 always a great bore. Mrs. Cuvier joined us, and I noticed her 

 expression was one of general sadness, and she listened with a 

 melancholy air that depressed my own spirits. The Baron soon 

 expressed himself fatigued, and went out, and I advised Parker 

 to keep him as short a time as possible. We were in one of 

 his libraries, and he asked his daughter to show us two portraits 

 of himself, painted some ten years ago. They were only so 

 so. Meanwhile the Baron named next Thursday for another 

 sitting, 



" September 20. This morning I had the pleasure of seeing 

 the venerable Kedonte, the flower-painter par eteeelUnce. After 

 reading Lesueur's note to him, dated five years ago, he looked 

 at me fixedly, and said, ' Well, sir, I am truly glad to become 

 acquainted with you ;' and without further ceremony he showed 

 me his best works. His flowers are grouped with peculiar 

 taste, well drawn and precise in the outlines, and coloured with 

 a pure brilliancy, which resembles Nature immeasurably better 

 than I ever saw it before. Eedonte dislikes all that is not pure 

 Nature ; he cannot bear drawings of stuffed birds or quadrupeds, 

 and expressed a desire to see a work wherein Nature is deline- 

 ated in an animated way. He said he dined every Friday at 

 the Duke of Orleans' ; he would take my work there next week, 

 and obtain his subscription, if not the Duchess's also. He 

 asked for a prospectus, and invited me to return next Wednes- 

 day. I looked over hundreds of his drawings, and learned 

 that he sold them at high prices, some as high as two hundred 

 and fifty guineas. On my way home I met the secretary of 

 the king's library, who tol4 me that the Baron de la BouUerie 

 had given orders to have my work inspected, and if approved, 

 to subscribe for it. I have found that letters of introduction 

 are not as useful here as in England. Cuvier, to whom I had 

 no letter, and to whom my name was unknown before my 

 arrival, is the only man who has yet invited me to his house. 

 I wished to go this evening to his scientific soiree, to which he 



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