The day when he purchased the postal order was the proudest in his life.

The transaction gave him a princely feeling.

He alone of boys, by special virtue of his origin, was capable of such a thing.

Again, his welcome in the painting world confirmed him in the belief that he was a personage, born to great things.

Posed on the model throne, the object of the painter's intense scrutiny, he swelled ingenuously with the conviction of his supreme importance.