be engaged in
painting pictures from the Divine Lady. I can not give her any other
name, for I think her superior to all womankind.

"I have two pictures to paint of her for the Prince of Wales. She says
she must see you before she leaves England, which will be in the
beginning of September. She asked me if you would not write my life. I
told her you had begun it; then, she said, she hoped you would have much
to say of her in the life, as she prided herself upon being my model.

"I dedicate my time to this charming lady; there is a prospect of her
leaving town with Sir William, for two or three weeks. They are very
much hurried at present, as everything is going on for their speedy
marriage, and all the world following her, and talking of her, so that
if she has not more good sense than vanity, her brain must be turned.
The pictures I have begun of Joan of Arc, a Magdalen, and a Bacchante
for the Prince of Wales; and another I am to begin as a companion to the
Bacchante. I am also to paint her as Constance for the Shakespeare
Gallery."

* * * * *

Twenty-three pictures of Emma Lyon painted by Romney are now
in existence. England at that time was experiencing a tidal wave of
genius, and Romney and his beautiful model rode in on the crest of the
wave, with Sir Joshua, the Herschels, Edmund Burke, Richard Brinsley
Sheridan, Doctor Johnson, Goldsmith, Horace Walpole and various others
of equal note caught in amber, all of them, by the busy Boswell.

Besides those who did things worth while, there were others who buzzed,
dallied, and simply seemed and thought they lived. Among this class who
were famous for doing nothing was Beau Nash, the pride of the pump-room.
Next in note, but more moderately colored, was Sir Charles Greville, man
of polite education, a typical courtier, with a leaning toward music and
the arts, which gave his character a flavor of culture that the others
did not possess.

The fair Emma was giving the Romney studio a trifle more fame than the
domestic peace of the portrait-painter demanded, and when Sir Charles
Greville, sitting for his portrait, became acquainted with the beautiful
model, Romney saw his opportunity to escape the inevitable crash. So Sir
Charles, the man of culture, the patron of the picturesque, the devotee
of beauty, undertook the further education of Emma as an ethnological
experiment.

He employed a competent teacher to give her lessons in voice