. There was a whole nation of motionless marble there
steeped in the diffuse light falling from the glazed roof on high.
Looking southwards, some holland screens barred half of the nave, which
showed ambery in the sunlight and was speckled at both ends by the
dazzling blue and crimson of stained-glass windows. Just a few visitors,
tired already, occupied the brand-new chairs and seats, shiny with fresh
paint; while the flights of sparrows, who dwelt above, among the iron
girders, swooped down, quite at home, raking up the sand and twittering
as they pursued each other.

Claude and Sandoz made a show of walking very quickly without giving
a glance around them. A stiff classical bronze statue, a Minerva by a
member of the Institute, had exasperated them at the very door. But as
they hastened past a seemingly endless line of busts, they recognised
Bongrand, who, all alone, was going slowly round a colossal,
overflowing, recumbent figure, which had been placed in the middle of
the path. With his hands behind his back, quite absorbed, he bent his
wrinkled face every now and then over the plaster.

'Hallo, it's you?' he said, as they held out their hands to him. 'I was
just looking at our friend Mahoudeau's figure, which they have at least
had the intelligence to admit, and to put in a good position.' Then,
breaking off: 'Have you been upstairs?' he asked.

'No, we have just come in,' said Claude.

Thereupon Bongrand began to talk warmly about the Salon of the Rejected.
He, who belonged to the Institute, but who lived apart from his
colleagues, made very merry over the affair; the everlasting discontent
of painters; the campaign conducted by petty newspapers like 'The
Drummer'; the protestations, the constant complaints that had at last
disturbed the Emperor, and the artistic _coup d'etat_ carried out by
that silent dreamer, for this Salon of the Rejected was entirely his
work. Then the great painter alluded to all the hubbub caused by the
flinging of such a paving-stone into that frog's pond, the official art
world.

'No,' he continued, 'you can have no idea of the rage and indignation
among the members of the hanging committee. And remember I'm distrusted,
they generally keep quiet when I'm there. But they are all furious with
the realists. It was to them that they systematically closed the doors
of the temple; it is on account of them that the Emperor has allowed the
public to revise their verdict; and finally it is t