Claude Phillips. I think he wanted a good smacking.
P. G. Konody. Ah, yes, his art has a smack about it. (Aside.) Good heading for the Daily Mail, ‘Art with a smack.’ (Writes in catalogue.)
Will Rothenstein. When I see pictures of this kind, my dear Gersaint, they seem to me to explain your existence. An artist without a conscience . . . (Sees Roger Fry.) My dear Fry, what are you doing here? Buying for New York? (Laughs meaningly.)
Roger Fry. Oh, no; but I hear Gersaint has a very fine picture by the Maîtresse of the Moulin Rouge. Weale says it is School of Gheel (pronounced Kail).
Will Rothenstein. Kail Yard I should think; do look at these things.
Roger Fry (vaguely). Who are they by? Oh, yes, Dubedat, of course.
[Fry and Rothenstein regard picture with disdain; it withers under their glance. Stage illusion by Maskelyne and Theodore Cook. Stepney places a red star on it.
Gersaint. Well, Mr. Bowyer Nichols, I hope we shall have a good long notice in the Westminster Gazette. Now if there is any drawing . . .
Bowyer Nichols (very stiffly). No, there isn’t. I don’t think the Exhibition sufficiently important; everything seems to me cribbed: most of the pictures look like reproductions of John, Orpen or Neville Lytton.
Gersaint. Ah, no doubt, influenced by Neville Lytton. That portrait of Mr. Cutler Walpole has a Neville Lytton feeling. Neville Lytton in his earlier manner.