What a man!"

The German aired his opinions in his own language, and took out a
notebook and pencil and wrote some notes.

"What sort of man was this?" asked Caesar, whom the technical side of
painting did not preoccupy, as it did Cortes.

"They say he was a dull man, who lived under a woman's domination."

"The great thing is," murmured Caesar, "how the painter has left him
here alive. It seems as if we had come in here to salute him, and he
was waiting for us to speak. Those clear eyes are questioning us. It is
curious."

"Not curious," exclaimed Cortes, "but admirable."

"For me it is more curious than admirable. There is something brutal in
this Pope; through his grey beard, which is so thin, you can see his
projecting chin. The good gentleman was of a marked prognathism, a type
of degeneration, indifference, intellectual torpor, and nevertheless, he
reached the top. Perhaps in the Church it's the same as in water, only
corks float."

_LEGEND AND HISTORY_

Caesar went out of the cabinet, leaving the German and Cortes seated on
the sofa, absorbed in the picture; he looked at various paintings in the
gallery, went back, and sat down, beside the artists.

"This portrait," he said presently, "is like history by the side of
legend. All the other paintings in the gallery are legend, 'folk-lore,'
as I believe one calls it. This one is history."

"That's what it is. It is truth," agreed Cortes.

"Yes, but there are people who do not like the truth, my friend. I tell
you: this is a man of flesh, somewhat enigmatic, like nature herself,
and with arteries in which blood flows; this is a man who breathes and
digests, and not merely a pleasant abstraction; you, who understand such
things, will tell me that the drawing is perfect, and the colour such
as it was in reality; but how about the person who doesn't ask for
reality?"

"Stendhal, the writer, was affected that way by this picture," said
Cortes; "he was shocked at its being hung among masterpieces."

"He found it bad, no doubt."

"Very bad?"

"Was this Stendhal English?"

"No, French."

"Ah, then, you needn't be surprised. A Frenchman has no obligation to
understand anything that's not French."

"Nevertheless he was an intelligent man."

"Did he perhaps have a good deal of veneration?"

"No, he boasted of not having any."

"Doubtless he did have without suspecting it. With a man who had no
veneration, what difference would it make whether t