Just look at him, listening to Verity talk about the relationship of taste with society, the possibility of a give-and-take and an evolution over time, and grinning fit to burst! "Mm, but then you have movements like the functionalists, who push ideas of spartan design to the point where even the Spartans might balk. Think of the blandest rectangular gray slab of a building you ever saw, and imagine the mind which calls that its artistic ideal. Some segment of society says that's good because it's efficient and cheap, some critics even laud its austerity... but what does it stimulate in us? Hm? There, I think, is a litmus test for art."

He chuckles, replying, "oh, not so. I've a very old, old soul. I just like to keep it spry."

"I'd suspected he might have a financial motive to support the one he thought was real, beyond his reputation, but I couldn't be certain. Thank you for catching him out on that, as well."