* * * * *

When the class was formed, so runs the tale, Whistler inquired of each
pupil with whom he had studied before.

"With Julian," said one.

"Couldn't have done better, sir," Whistler answered.

"With Chase," replied another.

"Couldn't have done better, sir."

"With Mowbray," answered a third.

"Couldn't have done better, sir," and so on.

He approached a student slightly deaf, who stammered in reply, "I beg
pardon?"

"Couldn't have done better, sir," responded Whistler, placidly,
passing on to the next.

* * * * *

"It suffices not, Messieurs," he once observed to the class, "that a
life spent among pictures makes a painter, else the policeman in the
National Gallery might assert himself."

* * * * *