Pinkerton and I read and re-read the famous news: he, I can swear, with an enjoyment as unalloyed and far more vocal than my own. The statue was nearly done: a few days' work sufficed to prepare it for exhibition; the master was approached; he gave his consent; and one cloudless morning of May beheld us gathered in my studio for the hour of trial. The master wore his many-hued rosette; he came attended by two of my French fellow-pupils--friends of mine, and both considerable sculptors in Paris at this hour. "Corporal John" (as we used to call him), breaking for once those habits of study and reserve which have since carried him so high in the opinion of the world, had left his easel of a morning to countenance a fellow-countryman in some suspense. My dear old Romney was there by particular request; for who that knew him would think a pleasure quite complete unless he shared it, or not support a mortification more easily if he were present to console? The party was completed by John Myner, the Englishman; by the brothers Stennis--Stennis-_aîné_, and Stennis-_frère_, as they used to figure on their accounts at Barbizon--a pair of hare-brained Scots; and by the inevitable Jim, as white as a sheet and bedewed with the sweat of anxiety. I suppose I was little better myself when I unveiled the Genius of Muskegon. The master walked about it seriously; then he smiled. "It is already not so bad," said he, in that funny English of which he was so proud; "no, already not so bad." We all drew a deep breath of relief; and Corporal John (as the most considerable junior present) explained to him it was intended for a public building, a kind of prefecture. "_Hé! quoi?_" cried he, relapsing into French. "_Qu'est-ce que vous me chantez là?_ O, in América," he added, on further information being hastily furnished. "That is anozer sing. O, véry good--véry good." The idea of the required certificate had to be introduced to his mind in the light of a pleasantry--the fancy of a nabob little more advanced than the Red Indians of "Fénnimore Cooperr"; and it took all our talents combined to conceive a form of words that would be acceptable on both sides. One was found, however: Corporal John engrossed it in his undecipherable hand, the master lent it the sanction of his name and flourish, I slipped it into an envelope along with one of the two letters I had already prepared in my pocket, and as the rest of us moved off along the boulevard to breakfast, Pinkerton was detached in a cab and duly committed it to the post.