'Why should I?' she would say. 'What are the
painters for? If there is anything good, let them bring it to me
and I will look at it. She said she preferred the picture to the
real thing, it was so much more artistic. In the landscape itself,
she complained, there was sure to be a chimney in the distance, or a
restaurant in the foreground, that spoilt the whole effect. The
artist left it out. If necessary, he could put in a cow or a pretty
girl to help the thing. The actual cow, if it happened to be there
at all, would probably be standing the wrong way round; the girl, in
all likelihood, would be fat and plain, or be wearing the wrong hat.
The artist knew precisely the sort of girl that ought to be there,
and saw to it that she was there, with just the right sort of hat.
She said she had found it so all through life--the poster was always
an improvement on the play."
"It is rapidly coming to that," answered the Minor Poet. "Nature,
as a well known painter once put it, is not 'creeping up' fast
enough to keep pace with our ideals. In advanced Germany they
improve the waterfalls and ornament the rocks.
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