PARTISAN REVIEW
411
center, catching the light.
It
is empty, like those outside.
In
the walls
on either side are tall niches, also containing nothing. Guards in the
same featureless uniforms stand
in
pairs at each doorway, and at
intervals along the corridors and in the arcades. There is a prescribed
order for visiting the rooms, and the guards point the way.
And in each room there are more of the large pedestals, with–
out statues or names.
In
some, besides, there are glass display cases,
of different shapes and sizes, empty, and picture frames containing
blank canvas on the walls. All along the arcades there are empty
niches and pedestals, alternating, and in each of the courtyards there
is an empty fountain. No one talks.
It
takes well over an hour to
make the tour of the rooms and step out into the world again on the
same side as the entrance but farther along. From there one leaves
by another walk flanked by empty pedestals. The donor lived to see
the building completed, but the public was admitted only after his
death.
Why did he want the visitors at all? Could he have foreseen
those who come out from the building with a sigh of relief and a
joke, or with a burst of indignation at the abuse of wealth or at the
enormity of his egoism - or with a yawn, a glance at a watch, a sug–
gestion about eating? Could he have foreseen those who emerge from
time to time in silence, with their faces shining?
