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 furnished by easels, paint-brushes in ginger jars, bespattered palettes, and scraps of drapery. The lower half of the apartment offered a not ill-disposed assortment of the conventional bibelots of the cultivated collector. A colored plaster cast of the "Unknown Lady," and a reproduction of the "Téte de Cire" attributed to Raphael, stood on Florentine brackets above the heavy Empire writing-desk of vast proportions. Everywhere hung sketches, mostly unframed and bearing well-known signatures. A collection of Japanese prints in gray "passepartouts" came next to the door opening into the adjoining room, and above the grand piano hung a dozen or more framed photographs of celebrities, all signed and bearing more or less complimentary remarks concerning their dear and admired Madame Despard. To any one unaquainted with the habits of celebrities, this array was vastly impressive, but it is such an easy way to repay attentions, that—well, why rob Madame Despard of her greatest glory?

The details of the place only impressed Victoria when she had leisure to observe, as every- 101