l; hated Republicans; despised authors and
artists, and by the ladies of the beau monde was pronounced common and
vulgar.

So long as she lived, it was impossible for Louvier to realize his
ambition of having one of the salons which at Paris establish celebrity
and position. He could not then command those advantages of wealth which
he especially coveted. He was eminently successful in doing this now.
As soon as she was safe in Pere la Chaise, he enlarged his hotel by
the purchase and annexation of an adjoining house; redecorated and
refurnished it, and in this task displayed, it must be said to his
credit, or to that of the administrators he selected for the purpose, a
nobleness of taste rarely exhibited nowadays. His collection of pictures
was not large, and consisted exclusively of the French school, ancient
and modern, for in all things Louvier affected the patriot. But each of
those pictures was a gem; such Watteaus, such Greuzes, such landscapes
by Patel, and, above all, such masterpieces by Ingres, Horace Vernet,
and Delaroche were worth all the doubtful originals of Flemish and
Italian art which make the ordinary boast of private collectors.

These pictures occupied two rooms of moderate size, built for their
reception, and lighted from above. The great salon to which they led
contained treasures scarcely less precious; the walls were covered with
the richest silks which the looms of Lyons could produce. Every piece
of furniture here was a work of art in its way: console-tables of
Florentine mosaic, inlaid with pearl and lapis-lazuli; cabinets in which
the exquisite designs of the Renaissance were carved in ebony; colossal
vases of Russian malachite, but wrought by French artists. The very
knick-knacks scattered carelessly about the room might have been admired
in the cabinets of the Palazzo Pitti. Beyond this room lay the salle de
danse, its ceiling painted by ------, supported by white marble columns,
the glazed balcony and the angles of the room filled with tiers of
exotics. In the dining-room, on the same floor, on the other side of
the landing-place, were stored in glazed buffets not only vessels and
salvers of plate, silver and gold, but, more costly still, matchless
specimens of Sevres and Limoges, and mediaeval varieties of Venetian
glass. On the ground-floor, which opened on the lawn of a large garden,
Louvier had his suite of private apartments, furnished, as he said,
"simply, according to English not