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Rh weeks at Gruchy, where he took portraits of his relations. He managed to lose the wretched pension of 300 francs which the municipality of Cherbourg paid him irregularly, by painting too realistic a likeness, which was not considered sufficiently respectful, of a recently deceased mayor. On the other hand, the stir made by this affair and the success of his first exhibited work in the Salon where a portrait by him was hung in 1840, attracted to him the sympathies of young people in his own neighbourhood. A young girl fell in love with him and he married her in November 1841. This happiness was a source of fresh and cruel sorrows to Millet. His wife was delicate; she was constantly ill during the few years she spent beside him; their life was very hard; in 1842 the Salon refused Millet's pictures; it was a daily struggle for existence. The poor wife was too weak to resist. She died, after long sufferings, in April 1844. Millet was again alone. He did not long remain so. On another journey to Cherbourg he made the acquaintance of a young girl who loved him silently, Catherine Lemaire, of Lorient. He married her in 1845. She was to be