In the open gallery, which runs around the inside of the huge oblong and looks on the court, the watercolors, engravings, and drawings slumbered, neglected.  Lampron went straight to his works.  I should have awarded them the medaille d’honneur; an etching of a man’s head, a large engraving of the Virgin and Infant Jesus from the Salon Carre at the Louvre, and the drawing which represents—­

“Great Heavens!  Sylvestre, she’s perfectly lovely; she will make a great mistake if she does not come and see herself!”

“She will come, my dear sir; but I shall not be there to see her.”

“Are you going?”

“I leave you to stalk your game; be patient, and do not forget to come and tell me the news this evening.”

“I promise.”

And Lampron vanished.

The drawing was hung about midway between two doorways draped with curtains, that opened into the big galleries.  I leaned against the woodwork of one of them, and waited.  On my left stretched a solitude seldom troubled by the few visitors who risk themselves in the realms of pen and pencil.  These, too, only came to get fresh air, or to look down on the many-colored crowd moving among the white statues below.

At my right, on the contrary, the battling currents of the crowd kept passing and repassing, the provincial element easily distinguished by its jaded demeanor.  Stout, exhausted matrons, breathless fathers of families, crowded the sofas, raising discouraged glances to the walls, while around them turned and tripped, untiring as at a dance, legions of Parisiennes, at ease, on their high heels, equally attentive to the pictures, their own carriage, and their neighbors’ gowns.

O peaceful functionaries, you whose business it is to keep an eye upon this ferment! unless the ceaseless flux of these human phenomena lull you to a trance, what a quantity of silly speeches you must hear!  I picked up twenty in as many minutes.

Suddenly there came a sound of little footsteps in the gallery.  Two little girls had just come in, two sisters, doubtless, for both had the same black eyes, pink dresses, and white feathers in their hats.  Hesitating, with outstretched necks, like fawns on the border of a glade, they seemed disappointed at the unexpected length of the gallery.  They looked at each other and whispered.  Then both smiled, and turning their backs on each other, they set off, one to the right, the other to the left, to examine the drawings which covered the walls.  They made a rapid examination, with which art had obviously little to do; they were looking for something, and I thought it might be for Jeanne’s portrait.  And so it turned out; the one on my side soon came to a stop, pointed a finger to the wall, and gave a little cry.  The other ran up; they clapped their hands.

“Bravo, bravo!”

Then off they went again through the farther door.

I guessed what they were about to do.