The next day when Mr. Croyden put his head in at Theo's door to say good-morning he found the boy sitting up in bed eating his breakfast and his first remark was:
"How long did it take France to find out how to make porcelain, Mr. Croyden?"
The manufacturer laughed.
"I declare if you are not beginning this morning just where you left off last night!" he exclaimed. "What kind of porcelain do you mean, hard or soft paste?"
"Oh, any kind."
"You have not forgotten the vast difference between the hard and soft ware, have you? I should be discouraged if you had."
Theo shook his head.
"I don't believe you would let me forget even if I wanted to," he replied with an impish chuckle.
"I certainly shouldn't," smiled Mr. Croyden. Then he added more seriously: "Soft paste china, or pâte tendre, as it is called, was made at St. Cloud as early as 1695, and some of it was very beautiful. Such ware looks more creamy and is not so cold and harsh to the touch. It is, however, much more fragile and for that reason, although a great deal of it was manufactured, the industry never became a wide-spread success. Later soft paste was also made at Chantilly, Vincennes, Limoges, Paris, and a number of French cities. Even the celebrated Sèvres ware, the finest thing in china-making that France ever produced, was at first made from soft paste. This is easily understood when you recall that at the beginning the only clays the French knew anything about were pâte tendre clays. It was not until kaolin was discovered in 1765 and taken from the section about St. Yrieix that hard paste, or pâte dure, was made in France."
"I see."