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Updated: May 24, 2025
I read the family records I study the history of the period his lordship sits to me daily I endeavor to give a certain amount of family likeness; sometimes more, you observe, sometimes less ... enormous responsibility, Monsieur Tapotte!" "Oh, enormous!" "The taste for family portraits," continued Müller, still touching up the Titian, "is a very natural one and is on the increase.
"And if M'sieur is to paint my wife," added Monsieur Tapotte, who had by this time joined the group at the easel, "I I...Dame! it must be a good deal more like than this." Müller drew himself up with an air of great dignity. "Sir," he said, "if Madame does me the honor to sit to me for her portrait for her own portrait, observe I flatter myself the resemblance will be overwhelming.
It is right that they should be so; as it is right that the necessaries of life should be within the reach of the poorest. Bread, for instance, is strictly necessary, and should be cheap. A great-grandfather, on the contrary, is an elegant superfluity, and may be put up at a high figure." "There is some truth in that," murmured Monsieur Tapotte.
But Monsieur Tapotte, being a cautious man, would say nothing hastily. He coughed, looked doubtful, declined to commit himself to an opinion, and presently drew off into a corner for the purpose of holding a whispered consultation with his wife.
"Ah, mon Dieu!" she said; "but it must be very fatiguing to sit so long in the same position. And to paint.... Oiel! what practice! what perseverance! what patience! Avec permission, M'sieur..." And with this she sidled up to Müller's elbow, leaving Monsieur Tapotte thunderstruck at her audacity.
Tapotte is not only going to sit for a companion half-length to Madame's portrait, but he has given me a commission for half-a-dozen ancestors. Fancy half-a-dozen illustrious dead-and-done Tapottes! What a scope for the imagination! What a bewildering vista of billets de banque! I feel ah, mon ami!
But you must permit me to inform you that Milord Smithfield is not sitting for his own portrait." The Tapottes looked at each other in a state bordering on stupefaction. "His lordship," continued Müller, "is sitting for the portrait of one of his illustrious ancestors a nobleman of the period of Queen Elizabeth." Tapotte mari scratched his head, and smiled feebly.
Many gentlemen of of somewhat recent wealth, come to me for their ancestors." "No!" "Foi d'honneur. Few persons, however, are as conscientious as his lordship in the matter of family resemblance. They mostly buy up their forefathers ready-made adopt them, christen them, and ask no questions." Monsieur and Madame Tapotte exchanged glances.
"Permit me, milord," he said, "to present Monsieur and Madame Tapotte Monsieur and Madame Tapotte; Milord Smithfield." I rose and bowed with the gravity becoming my rank.
Meanwhile Monsieur and Madame Tapotte were fidgeting upon their chairs in respectful silence. Every now and then they exchanged glances of wonder and admiration. They were evidently dying to compare my august features with my portrait, but dared not take the liberty of rising. At length the lady's curiosity could hold out no longer.
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