Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 11, 1895 - Miscellanies, Volume III

FONTAINEBLEAU
the life of the studious. There had been disputes ;
and, in one instance at least, the English and the
Americans had made common cause to prevent a
cruel pleasantry. It would be well if nations and
races could communicate their qualities ; but in
practice when they look upon each other, they have
an eye to nothing but defects. The Anglo-Saxon is
essentially dishonest; the French is devoid by
nature of the principle that we call 'Fair Play.'
The Frenchman marvelled at the scruples of his
guest, and, when that defender of innocence retired
over-seas and left his bills unpaid, he marvelled once
again ; the good and evil were, in his eyes, part and
parcel of the same eccentricity ; a shrug expressed
his judgment upon both.
At Barbizon there was no master, no pontiff in
the arts. Palizzi bore rule at Grez — urbane,
superior rule — his memory rich in anecdotes of the
great men of yore, his mind fertile in theories ; scep-
tical, composed, and venerable to the eye ; and yet,
beneath these outworks, all twittering with Italian
superstition, his eye scouting for omens, and the
whole fabric of his manners giving way on the
appearance of a hunchback. Cernay had Pelouse,
the admirable, placid Pelous^, smilingly critical of
youth, who, when a full-blown commercial traveller
suddenly threw down his samples, bought a colour-
box, and became the master whom we have all
admired. Marlotte, for a central figure, boasted
Olivier de Penne. Only Barbizon, since the death
of Millet, was a headless commonwealth. Even its
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