like most legendary figures, is absolutely false."

This conversation--or rather monologue, for I was careful not to
interrupt him--took place in the early part of the Second Empire, in the
house in the Rue de la Ville-Leveque he occupied for five and twenty
years, and until 1860. The Coup d'Etat had irretrievably shattered
Guizot's political career. It had destroyed whatever hopes may have
remained after the flight of Louis-Philippe. Consequently Guizot's
proper place is among the men of that reign; the reason why I insert him
here is because my acquaintance with him only began after his
disappearance from public life.

It occurred in this way. One evening, after dinner at M. de Morny's, we
were talking about pictures, and especially about those of the Spanish
school, when our host turned to me. "Have you ever seen 'the Virgin'
belonging to M. Guizot?" he asked. I told him I had not. "Then go and
see it," he said. "It is one of the finest specimens of its kind I ever
saw, I might say the finest." Next day I asked permission of M. Guizot
to come and see it, and, almost by return of post, I received an
invitation for the following Thursday night to one of his "at homes."

Until then I had never met M. Guizot, except at one of his ministerial
soirees under the preceding dynasty. The apartment offered nothing very
striking: the furniture was of the ordinary kind to be found in almost
every bourgeois drawing-room, with this difference--that it was
considerably shabbier; for Guizot was poor all his life. The man who had
said to the nation, "Enrichissez vous, enrichissez vous," had never
acted upon the advice himself. I know for a fact that, while he was in
power, he was asked to appoint to the post of receiver-general of the
Gironde one of the richest financiers in France, who had expressed the
intention to share the magnificent benefits of the appointment with him.
M. Guizot simply and steadfastly refused to do anything of the kind.

On the evening in question, a lamp with a reflector was placed in front
of the picture I had come to see, probably in my honour. M. de Morny had
not exaggerated the beauty of it, but it bore no signature, and M.
Guizot himself had no idea with regard to the painter. "There is a
curious story connected with it," he said, "but I cannot tell it you
now; come and see me one morning and I will. As an Englishman it will
interest you; especially if you will take the trouble to read between
the lin