Character: Feuilly
Words: cheap, wreath
Time: 10 minutes
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"It's to be a cheap fan, Feuilly, can't you get it into your head? Nice design, but too complicated; it'll take too much time. Cut the details. That wreath there, the stuff in the window, most of the figures. No, leave the embracing couple; that'll sell; we can make them into the focus of the piece. This beggar over here needs erasing, though—whatever possessed you to put him there in the first place?"
Feuilly's supervisor goes on instructing him in how to simplify the new design he's done, a Parisian street with a light dusting of snow, and he erases obediently. It was too complicated for a cheap fan, he admits, but he was proud of the composition and hates to see it go.
Someday, Feuilly promises himself, he'll be able to do art how he likes, to say what he wants to say. And he'll include the beggars.