one o’clock precisely
He only became lenient and sociable when he wanted to get a picture accepted , on those occasions showing himself extremely fertile in devices , intriguing and carrying the vote with all the supple deftness of a conjurer . The committee work was really a hard task , and even Bongrand 's strong legs grew tired of it . It was cut out every day by the assistants . An endless row of large pictures rested on the ground against the handrails , all along the first-floor galleries , right round the Palace ; and every afternoon , at one o'clock precisely , the forty committee-men , headed by their president , who was equipped with a bell , started off on a promenade , until all the letters in the alphabet , serving as exhibitors ' initials , had been exhausted . They gave their decisions standing , and the work was got through as fast as possible , the worst canvases being rejected without going to the vote . At times , however , discussions delayed the party , there came a ten minutes ' quarrel , and some picture which caused a dispute was reserved for the evening revision . Two men , holding a cord some thirty feet long , kept it stretched at a distance of four paces from the line of pictures , so as to restrain the committee-men , who kept on pushing each other in the heat of their dispute , and whose stomachs , despite everything , were ever pressing against the cord .