Rose VanDusenberg, parts 922 - 925

922. Then she turned the pages until she came across David's picture of the coronation of Napoleon. "And here we have the ultimate idiocy of historical painting," she said,  "this is a combination of all that is wrong with the Ben Hur style of historical pictures combined with an inability to understand his present predicament as a revolutionary who voted to decapitate the King, only a few years  later to paint the glorification of an Emperor.

923. The sad thing is that the bad jokes he produced cost him years of toil. Still, the public loved his work up till the end when he had to flee to England to avoid the new King's wrath during the restoration.

924. The poor restaurant manager listened to Rose in silence because he had nothing to say, and did not even have any idea what she was talking about. Rose went on and on taking about her favorite subject, and now and then the manager ventured a timid question, just to indicate that he was listening.

925. But for Coromo it was a different matter entirely, the conversation was causing an earthquake in his mind, a mind unacquainted with a single idea about what is and what is not art. And you must never forget, if you want to know what Coromo was like, that he was deeply religious, walking away from Rose and the manager to the kitchen he muttered to himself, 'Having eyes I saw not." casting in biblical terms, these confusing new ideas.