THE PORTRAIT GALLERY
227
autonomous port of Bonville, M. Boulange, merchant, with his fam–
ily, M. Rannequin, Mayor of Bonville, M. de Lucien, born in Bon–
ville, ambassador from France to the United States and poet, an
unknown in the garb of a prefect, Sister Sainte-Marie-Louise, Mother
Superior of the big orphanage, M. and Mme. Thereson, M. Thiboust–
Gouron, Acting President of the board of arbitration between em–
ployers and workers, M. Robot, principal administrator for the sea–
men's conscription, M. Brion, Minette, Grelot, Lefebvre, Dr. and
Mme. Pain, Bordurin himself, painted by his son Pierre Bordurin.
Clear, cool gazes, refined features, thin lips. M. Boulange was thrifty
and patient, Sister Sainte-Marie-Louise piously industrious, M. Thi–
boust-Gouron was hard on himself as on everyone else. Mme. Thereson
struggled unflaggingly against an obscure disease. Her mouth, infinitely
weary, was sufficient evidence of her suffering. But never had this
pious woman said, "I feel ill." She got the upper hand: she composed
menus and presided over charitable organizations. Sometimes, in
the middle of a phrase, her eyelids would drop slowly and the life
would go out of her face. This faintness would last hardly more than
a second; soon Mme. Thereson would re-open her eyes, take up her
interupted phrase. And it was whispered in the workhouse: "Poor
Mme. Thereson! She never complains."
I had covered the entire length of the Bordurin-Renaudas Salon.
I turned back. Farewell fair lilies, delicate in your little painted
sanctuaries, farewell fair lilies, our pride and our reason for existence,
farewell stinkers.
(Translated by Juliette Bigney)
CORRECTION: Paul Hagen's review in our Winter issue of
Germany Is Our
Problem,
by Henry Morgenthau, contained an unfortunate typographical error.
The phrase, "the Hun-hunting of the Church of England," should have read
"the Hun-hunting of Churchillian England."
