318 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
court, and was obliged to preserve the utmost decorum 
of manner; he expressed the belief that he had not once 
laughed in the presence of the young lady during the 
entire term of his tutorial engagement, which lasted 
from the 18th of June to the 21st of October. Later, 
in December of the same year, when his former pupil 
passed him without recognition in the streets of New 
Orleans, he indulged in the reflection that she had ap- 
parently quite forgotten the great pains with which at 
her own request he had done her portrait in pastels, 
but, thanks to his talents, he thought that he could run 
the gauntlet of the world without her help.’® 
At New Orleans Audubon soon found new pupils, 
particularly through the aid of Mr. R. Pamar and Mr. 
William Braud,’® who came to his assistance, Mrs. 
Braud and her son paying him at the rate of three dol- 
lars for a lesson of one hour. On November 10, 1821, 
he wrote: 
Continued my close application to my ornithology, writing 
every day, from morning until night, omitting no observations, 
correcting, re-arranging from my notes and measurements, and 
posting up; particularly all my land birds. The great many 
errors I found in the work of Wilson astonished me. I try to 
speak of them with care, and as seldom as possible, knowing 
the good will of that man, and the vast many hearsay accounts 
he depended on. 
* The vivacious Miss Pirrie did not marry the young doctor, but 
eloped to Natchez with the son of a neighboring planter, who died within 
a month in consequence of a cold, said to have been contracted when he 
waded a deep stream with his lady-love in his arms. Audubon’s pupil 
was thrice married, and bore five children; she died April 20, 1851, and 
her ashes now rest by the side of her second husband, the Reverend 
William Robert Bowman, the parish minister at St. Francisville. See 
Arthur (Bibl. No. 230), loc. cit. 
*© Mistakenly written “Brand” by Audubon’s biographers, according to 
Mr. Stanley C. Arthur, who writes that “Braud” is a very common name 
in New Orleans. 
