One even hesitates as to the sex; and when faith is lacking one has to take the first model one finds and copy it and spoil it.

For my part, while I was modelling that one, I tried to imagine a beautiful youth suddenly endowed with wings, and carried by the intoxication of his flight into all the joy of the sunshine.

But it upset them, they wanted something more religious, they said; and so then I concocted that wretched thing over there.

After all, one has to earn one's living, you know." So saying, he waved his hand towards another model, the one for which his assistants were preparing the stone.

And this model represented an angel of the correct type, with symmetrical wings like those of a goose, a figure of neither sex, and commonplace features, expressing the silly ecstasy that tradition requires.
"What would you have ?" continued Jahan.