’Ah! as for you, you will just oblige me by sitting down there and helping us!  It’s for the good cause, dash it all!’

Claude abruptly found himself chairman of one of the counting committees, and began to perform his functions with all the gravity of a timid man, secretly experiencing a good deal of emotion, as if the hanging of his canvas would depend upon the conscientiousness he showed in his work.  He called out the names inscribed upon the voting-papers, which were passed to him in little packets, while the scrutineers, on sheets of paper prepared for the purpose, noted each successive vote that each candidate obtained.  And all this went on amidst a most frightful uproar, twenty and thirty names being called out at the same time by different voices, above the continuous rumbling of the crowd.  As Claude could never do anything without throwing passion into it, he waxed excited, became despondent whenever a voting-paper did not bear Fagerolles’ name, and grew happy as soon as he had to shout out that name once more.  Moreover, he often tasted that delight, for his friend had made himself popular, showing himself everywhere, frequenting the cafes where influential groups of artists assembled, even venturing to expound his opinions there, and binding himself to young artists, without neglecting to bow very low to the members of the Institute.  Thus there was a general current of sympathy in his favour.  Fagerolles was, so to say, everybody’s spoilt child.

Night came on at about six o’clock that rainy March day.  The assistants brought lamps; and some mistrustful artists, who, gloomy and silent, were watching the counting askance, drew nearer.  Others began to play jokes, imitated the cries of animals, or attempted a tyrolienne.  But it was only at eight o’clock, when a collation of cold meat and wine was served, that the gaiety reached its climax.  The bottles were hastily emptied, the men stuffed themselves with whatever they were lucky enough to get hold of, and there was a free-and-easy kind of Kermesse in that huge hall which the logs in the fireplace lit up with a forge-like glow.  Then they all smoked, and the smoke set a kind of mist around the yellow light from the lamps, whilst on the floor trailed all the spoilt voting-papers thrown away during the polling; indeed, quite a layer of dirty paper, together with corks, breadcrumbs, and a few broken plates.  The heels of those seated at the table disappeared amidst this litter.  Reserve was cast aside; a little sculptor with a pale face climbed upon a chair to harangue the assembly, and a painter, with stiff moustaches under a hook nose, bestrode a chair and galloped, bowing, round the table, in mimicry of the Emperor.

Little by little, however, a good many grew tired and went off.  At eleven o’clock there were not more than a couple of hundred persons present.  Past midnight, however, some more people arrived, loungers in dress-coats and white ties, who had come from some theatre or soiree and wished to learn the result of the voting before all Paris knew it.  Reporters also appeared; and they could be seen darting one by one out of the room as soon as a partial result was communicated to them.