passes in bourgeois regions for a fine portrait-painter. He earns
some twenty thousand francs a year and spoils a thousand francs' worth
of canvas. His wife has six thousand francs a year in dowry, and he
lives with his father-in-law. The Vervelles and the Grassous, who agree
delightfully, keep a carriage, and are the happiest people on earth.
Pierre Grassou never emerges from the bourgeois circle, in which he
is considered one of the greatest artists of the period. Not a family
portrait is painted between the barrier du Trone and the rue du Temple
that is not done by this great painter; none of them costs less than
five hundred francs. The great reason which the bourgeois families have
for employing him is this:--

"Say what you will of him, he lays by twenty thousand francs a year with
his notary."

As Grassou took a creditable part on the occasion of the riots of May
12th he was appointed an officer of the Legion of honor. He is a major
in the National Guard. The Museum of Versailles felt it incumbent to
order a battle-piece of so excellent a citizen, who thereupon walked
about Paris to meet his old comrades and have the happiness of saying to
them:--

"The King has given me an order for the Museum of Versailles."

Madame de Fougeres adores her husband, to whom she has presented two
children. This painter, a good father and a good husband, is unable to
eradicate from his heart a fatal thought, namely, that artists laugh at
his work; that his name is a term of contempt in the studios; and that
the feuilletons take no notice of his pictures. But he still works on;
he aims for the Academy, where, undoubtedly, he will enter. And--oh!
vengeance which dilates his heart!--he buys the pictures of celebrated
artists who are pinched for means, and he substitutes these true works
of arts that are not his own for the wretched daubs in the collection at
Ville d'Avray.

There are many mediocrities more aggressive and more mischievous than
that of Pierre Grassou, who is, moreover, anonymously benevolent and
truly obliging.

ADDENDUM

The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.

Bridau, Joseph
The Purse
A Bachelor's Establishment
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Start in Life
Modeste Mignon
Another Study of Woman
Letters of Two Brides
Cousin Betty
The Member for Arcis

Cardot (Parisian notary)
The M