pleases.
There will be plenty of pretty bits about your vintaging girl.'

The compliment made Mahoudeau feel serious. He posed above all for
vigour of execution; he was unconscious of his real vein of talent, and
despised gracefulness, though it ever invincibly sprung from his big,
coarse fingers--the fingers of an untaught working-man--like a flower
that obstinately sprouts from the hard soil where the wind has flung its
seed.

Fagerolles, who was very cunning, had decided to send nothing, for fear
of displeasing his masters; and he chaffed the Salon, calling it 'a foul
bazaar, where all the bad painting made even the good turn musty.' In
his inmost heart he was dreaming of one day securing the Rome prize,
though he ridiculed it, as he did everything else.

However, Jory stationed himself in the middle of the room, holding up
his glass of beer. Sipping every now and then, he declared: 'Well, your
hanging committee quite disgusts me! I say, shall I demolish it? I'll
begin bombarding it in our very next number. You'll give me some notes,
eh? and we'll knock it to pieces. That will be fine fun.'

Claude was at last fully wound up, and general enthusiasm prevailed.
Yes, yes, they must start a campaign. They would all be in it, and,
pressing shoulder to shoulder, march to the battle together. At that
moment there was not one of them who reserved his share of fame, for
nothing divided them as yet; neither the profound dissemblance of their
various natures, of which they themselves were ignorant, nor their
rivalries, which would some day bring them into collision. Was not
the success of one the success of all the others? Their youth was
fermenting, they were brimming over with mutual devotion; they indulged
anew in their everlasting dream of gathering into a phalanx to conquer
the world, each contributing his individual effort; this one helping
that one forward, and the whole band reaching fame at once in one row.
Claude, as the acknowledged chief, was already sounding the victory,
distributing laurels with such lyrical abundance that he overlooked
himself. Fagerolles himself, gibing Parisian though he might be,
believed in the necessity of forming an army; while even Jory, although
he had a coarser appetite, with a deal of the provincial still about
him, displayed much useful comradeship, catching various artistic
phrases as they fell from his companions' lips, and already preparing in
his mind the articles which would h