comparisons and moralizing; I find I have unconsciously done both, but
will endeavour not to offend again. Still, I cannot help observing how
the mere "moneyed nobody" rushes nowadays to the eminent painter to have
his lineaments reproduced, when a guinea photograph would serve his
purpose just as well for "family use;" for I take it that no one,
besides his relations and friends, cares or will care to gaze upon his
features. And yet our annual picture exhibitions are crowded with the
portraits of these nonentities. They advertise themselves through the
painters that transfer them to canvas, and the latter are content to
pocket heavy fees, like the advertising agents they are. I am certain
that neither Holbein, Rubens, Van Dyck, Hals, nor Rembrandt would have
lent themselves to such transactions. When they, or a Reynolds, a
Lawrence, a Gainsborough, conferred the honour of their brush upon some
one, it was because he or she was already distinguished from his or her
fellow-creatures by beauty, social position, talents, genius, or birth;
not because he or she wanted to be, or, in default of such distinction,
wanted to attract the public notice at all costs. That, I fancy, was the
way in which painters of other days looked upon the thing. I know it was
the way in which the young fellows at the "Childebert" did; and woe to
their comrade who ventured to apply in art the principle of
international maritime law, that "le pavillon couvre la marchandise"
(the flag covers the cargo)! He was scouted and jeered at, and,
moreover, rarely allowed to reap the pecuniary benefit of his artistic
abasement. Hence the "patron for a portrait" seldom found his way to "La
Childebert." When he did, the whole of the place conspired to make his
life and that of his would-be _protege_ a misery.

To enumerate all the devices resorted to to make the sittings abortive,
to "distort the features that had donned the bland smile of placid
contentment" with the paralyzing fear of some impending catastrophe,
would be impossible; the mention of a few must suffice. That most
frequently employed, and comparatively easy of execution, was the
setting alight of damp straw; the dense smoke penetrated every nook and
cranny of the crazy building, and the sitter, mad with fright, rushed
away. The chances were a hundred to one against his ever returning.
Another was the intrusion of a male model offering his services as a
Saint-Jerome, or a female one offering hers a