The conversation turned on the new movement in art, on the new illustrations of the Bible by a French artist.

Vorkuev attacked the artist for a realism carried to the point of coarseness.

Levin said that the French had carried conventionality further than anyone, and that consequently they see a great merit in the return to realism.

In the fact of not lying they see poetry.

Never had anything clever said by Levin given him so much pleasure as this remark.