--I could put them in the Salon; I might go in for
portrait-painting. Well, yes!"

Old Elie descended the staircase to go in search of the Vervelle family.
To know to what extend this proposition would act upon the painter, and
what effect would be produced upon him by the Sieur and Dame Vervelle,
adorned by their only daughter, it is necessary to cast an eye on the
anterior life of Pierre Grassou of Fougeres.

When a pupil, Fougeres had studied drawing with Servin, who was
thought a great draughtsman in academic circles. After that he went to
Schinner's, to learn the secrets of the powerful and magnificent color
which distinguishes that master. Master and scholars were all discreet;
at any rate Pierre discovered none of their secrets. From there he went
to Sommervieux' atelier, to acquire that portion of the art of painting
which is called composition, but composition was shy and distant to him.
Then he tried to snatch from Decamps and Granet the mystery of their
interior effects. The two masters were not robbed. Finally Fougeres
ended his education with Duval-Lecamus. During these studied and
these different transformations Fougeres' habits and ways of life were
tranquil and moral to a degree that furnished matter of jesting to the
various ateliers where he sojourned; but everywhere he disarmed his
comrades by his modesty and by the patience and gentleness of a lamblike
nature. The masters, however, had no sympathy for the good lad; masters
prefer bright fellows, eccentric spirits, droll or fiery, or else gloomy
and deeply reflective, which argue future talent. Everything about
Pierre Grassou smacked of mediocrity. His nickname "Fougeres" (that
of the painter in the play of "The Eglantine") was the source of much
teasing; but, by force of circumstances, he accepted the name of the
town in which he had first seen light.

Grassou of Fougeres resembled his name. Plump and of medium height, he
had a dull complexion, brown eyes, black hair, a turned-up nose, rather
wide mouth, and long ears. His gentle, passive, and resigned air gave a
certain relief to these leading features of a physiognomy that was full
of health, but wanting in action. This young man, born to be a virtuous
bourgeois, having left his native place and come to Paris to be clerk
with a color-merchant (formerly of Mayenne and a distant connection of
the Orgemonts) made himself a painter simply by the fact of an obstinacy
which constitutes the Breton chara