'A Frenchman, or a man of French descent. Isn't that characteristic!
In the whole great Abbey the one monument which has impressed us with
its genius and imagination is by a foreigner. We haven't got it in
us. We are too much afraid of letting ourselves go and of giving
ourselves away. We are heavy-handed and heavy-minded.'

'If we can't produce the monuments, we can produce the men who
deserve them,' said Maude, and Frank wrote the aphorism down upon his
shirt-cuff.

'We are too severe both in sculpture and architecture,' said he.
'More fancy and vigour in our sculptors, more use of gold and more
ornament in our architects--that is what we want. But I think it is
past praying for. It would be better to subdivide the work of the
world, according to the capacity of the different nations. Let Italy
and France embellish us. We might do something in exchange--organise
the French colonies, perhaps, or the Italian exchequer. That is our
legitimate work, but we will never do anything at the other.'

The guide had already reached the end of his round, an iron gate
corresponding to that by which they had entered, and they found him
waiting impatiently and swinging his keys. But Maude's smile and
word of thanks as she passed him brought content into his face once
more. A ray of living sunshine is welcome to the man who spends his
days among the tombs.

They walked down the North Transept and out through Solomon's Porch.
The rain-cloud had swept over, and the summer sun was shining upon
the wet streets, turning them all to gold. This might have been that