It was the artist's intention to take no pupils but young ladies
belonging to rich families of good position, in order to meet with no
complaints as to the composition of his classes. He even refused to
take girls who wished to become artists; for to them he would have
been obliged to give certain instructions without which no talent
could advance in the profession. Little by little his prudence and the
ability with which he initiated his pupils into his art, the certainty
each mother felt that her daughter was in company with none but
well-bred young girls, and the fact of the artist's marriage, gave him
an excellent reputation as a teacher in society. When a young girl
wished to learn to draw, and her mother asked advice of her friends,
the answer was, invariably: "Send her to Servin's."

Servin became, therefore, for feminine art, a specialty; like Herbault
for bonnets, Leroy for gowns, and Chevet for eatables. It was
recognized that a young woman who had taken lessons from Servin was
capable of judging the paintings of the Musee conclusively, of making
a striking portrait, copying an ancient master, or painting a genre
picture. The artist thus sufficed for the educational needs of the
aristocracy. But in spite of these relations with the best families in
Paris, he was independent and patriotic, and he maintained among them
that easy, brilliant, half-ironical tone, and that freedom of judgment
which characterize painters.

He had carried his scrupulous precaution into the arrangements of the
locality where his pupils studied. The entrance to the attic above his
apartments was walled up. To reach this retreat, as sacred as a harem,
it was necessary to go up a small spiral staircase made within his own
rooms. The studio, occupying nearly the whole attic floor under the