Joseph Mallord William Turner Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway painting

Joseph Mallord William Turner Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway paintingGustave Courbet Marine paintingGustave Courbet Woman with a Parrot painting
Chamcha's room struck the sleepless intruder as contrived, and therefore sad: the caricature of an actor's room full of signed photographs of colleagues, handbills, framed programmes, production stills, citations, awards, volumes of movie--star memoirs, a room bought off the peg, by the yard, an imitation of life, a mask's mask. Novelty items on every surface: ashtrays in the shape of pianos, china pierrots peeping out from behind a shelf of books. And everywhere, on the walls, in the movie posters, in the glow of the lamp borne by bronze Eros, in the mirror shaped like a heart, oozing up through the blood-red carpet, dripping from the ceiling, Saladin's need for love. In the theatre everybody gets kissed and everybody is darling. The actor's offers, on a you married?” “Any kids” “Not working, I suppose?” “Where are you living?” “What does your husband do?”
That pretty much exhausted her minimal interest in me and she turned the discussion to another mutual – well - on my part friend, on her part acquaintance. Her comment was that so-and-so had “done well” for herself

Edward Hopper Ryder's House painting

Edward Hopper Ryder's House paintingEdward Hopper Railroad Train paintingEdward Hopper New York Street Corner painting
Saladin Chamcha, following the line of Popeye's pointing finger, raised his hands to his forehead, and then he knew that he had woken into the most fearsome of nightmares, a nightmare that had only just begun, because there at his temples, growing longer by the moment, and sharp enough to draw blood, were two new, goaty, unarguable horns.
o o o
Before the army of policemen took Saladin Chamcha away into his new life, there was one more unexpected occurrence. Gibreel Farishta, seeing the blaze of lights and hearing the delirious laughter of the law--enforcement officers, came downstairs in a maroon smoking jacket and jodhpurs, chosen from Henry Diamond's wardrobe. Smelling faintly of mothballs, he stood on the first-floor landing and observed the proceedings without comment. He stood

Edgar Degas The Rehearsal painting

Edgar Degas The Rehearsal paintingEdgar Degas The Bellelli Family paintingEdgar Degas At the Races painting
their son. Here, in this waterless wilderness, he abandoned her. She asked him, can this be God's will? He replied, it is. And left, the bastard. From the beginning men" used God to justify the unjustifiable. He moves in mysterióus ways: men say. Small wonder, then, that women have turned to me. -- But I'll keep to the point; Hagar wasn't a witch. She was trusting: _then surely He will not let me perish_. After Ibrahim left her, she fed the baby at her breast until her milk ran out. Then she climbed two hills, first Safa then Marwah, running from one to the other in her desperation, trying to sight a tent, a camel, a human being. She saw nothing. That was when he came to her, Gibreel, and showed her the waters of Zamzam. So Hagar survived; but why now do the pilgrims congregate? To celebrate her survival? No, no. They are celebrating the honour done the valley by the visit of, you've guessed it, Ibrahim. In that loving consort's name, they gather, worship and, above all, spend.
Jahilia today is all perfume. The scents of Araby, of _Arabia Odorifera_, hang in the air: balsam, cassia, cinnamon, frankincense, myrrh. The pilgrims drink the wine of the date-palm and wander in the great fair of the feast of Ibrahim

George Bellows Dempsey and Firpo painting

George Bellows Dempsey and Firpo paintingCaravaggio The Sacrifice of Isaac paintingCaravaggio The Musicians painting
breasts she spouted hot astounding tears the colour and consistency of buffalo milk. She had watched her mother die like a bird being carved for dinner, first the left breast then the right, and still the cancer had spread. Her fear of repeating her mother's death placed her chest off limits. Fearless Zeeny's secret terror. She had never had a child but her eyes wept milk.
After their first lovemaking she started right in on him, the tears forgotten now. "You know what you are, I'll tell you. A deserter is what, more English than, your Angrez accent wrapped around you like a flag, and don't think it's so perfect, it slips, baba, like a false moustache."
"There's something strange going on," he wanted to say, "my voice," but he didn't know how to put it, and held his tongue.
"People like you," she snorted, kissing his shoulder. "You come back after so long and think godknowswhat of yourselves. Well, baby, we got a lower opinion of you." Her smile was brighter than Pamela's. "I see," he said to

Caravaggio Taking of Christ painting

Caravaggio Taking of Christ paintingCaravaggio The Incredulity of Saint Thomas paintingArthur Hughes La Belle Dame Sans Merci painting
speedy, trusted athletes, because a man who makes up to eleven movies "sy-multaneous" needs to conserve his energies. Guided by a complex coding system of slashes, circles and dots which Gibreel remembered from his childhood among the fabled lunch-runners of Bombay (of which more later), the chair-men zoomed him from role to role, delivering him as punctually and unerringly as once his father had delivered lunch. And after each take Gibreel would skip back into the chair and be navigated at high speed towards the next set, to be re-costumed, made up and Bombay talkies," he told his loyal crew, "is more like a wheelchair race with one-two pit stops along the route."
After the illness, the Ghostly Germ, the Mystery Malaise, the Bug, he had returned to work, easing himself in, only seven pictures at a time . . . and then, justlikethat, he wasn't there. The wheelchair stood empty among the silenced sound-stages; his absence revealed the tawdry shamming of the sets. Wheelchairmen, one to four, made excuses for the missing star when movie executives descended upon them in wrath: Ji, he must be sick, he has always

Titian The Fall of Man painting

Titian The Fall of Man paintingJohn William Godward Nu Sur La Plage paintingJohn William Godward Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder painting
recommend it to anyone trying to get lean (it’s included in my list of tips at the bottom of this post).
OK, let’s take aa month ago, and the progress I’ve made on each:
just to get myself in good shape for my honeymoon in late June, and then after that to prepare for my 3rd marathon in December. Progress: I’ve been exercising almost every single day and eating the last month. I’ve added triathlon training to my running and weight lifting and feel fitter than ever. I’ve lost an inch or two on my waist and about 5 lbs so far, though my weight has plateaued a bit. I really feel fitter than I was a month ago and feel like I’ll be seeing even more results in the next few weeks.
1. Start and stick to a regular strength training routine. I’m going to do 2 full-body workouts a week, just 6 exercises: bench press, standing rows, shoulder presses, pullups, bicep curls and squats. I might add deadlifts and dips later, and maybe a 3rd day per week once I’ve gotten into the habit (after 3 weeks maybe). Progress: I’ve stuck to this strength training routine extremely well so far, doing more than 5 weeks of this schedule. I’ve gone from one set per exercise to four (starting today) and have increased the weights for each

Edward Hopper Route 6 Eastham painting

Edward Hopper Route 6 Eastham paintingEdward Hopper Queensborough Bridge paintingEdward Hopper House by the Railroad painting
the money. You're as clever as you are beautiful. And I only hope you are as discreet."
"I'd prefer cash," she said, "if you don't mind." And I gave her five hundred gold pieces the next day. Calpumia, a prostitute and the daughter of a prostitute, was more intelligent and loyal and kind-hearted and straightforward than any of the four noblewomen I have married. I soon began to take her into my confidence about my private affairs and I may say at once that I never regretted having done so.
The moment that Tiberius's funeral was over, Caligula had taken ship, in spite of very bad weather, to the islands where his mother and his brother Nero had been buried; he gathered up their remains, half-burned, and brought them back, burned them properly, and piously interred them in Augustus's tomb. He instituted a new annual festival, with sword-fighting and

Francois Boucher Diana Resting after her Bath painting

Francois Boucher Diana Resting after her Bath paintingJohannes Vermeer Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window paintingFrederic Remington Radisson and Groseilliers painting
being the case. Though he undertook no new public works worth speaking of, merely contenting himself with completing those begun by Augustus, he kept the Army and the Fleet efficient and up to strength, paid his officials regularly and made them send in detailed reports four times a year, encouraged trade, assured a regular supply of corn for Italy, kept the roads and aqueducts in repair, limited public and private extravagance in a variety of ways, stabilized food prices, put down piracy and banditry and built up a considerable reserve of public money in case of any national emergency. He maintained his provincial governors in office for many years at a time, if they were any good, so as not to unsettle matters, keeping a careful watch on them however. One governor, to show his efficiency and loyalty, sent Tiberius more tribute than was due. Tiberius gave him a reprimand:
"I want my sheep shorn, not shaved." As a result there were few frontier wars after the German trouble was settled by Maroboduus's welcome to Rome

Herbert James Draper Ulysses and the Sirens painting

Herbert James Draper Ulysses and the Sirens paintingHerbert James Draper Lamia paintingHerbert James Draper Halcyone painting
Change your auto-response. When you want to do something, don’t think about it, just do it. Many of our opportunities in life pass us by simply because we can’t make a decision. We’re wrapped up in an effort to figure out all the facts and gain enough experience before we take the plunge.
The truth is, most experience comes from making things up as you go along. You’ll inevitably make mistakes and achieve less than perfect results. If you can develop a keen ability to ignore fear of the unknown, you can take years off your learning curve.
Instead of thinking “I don’t know,” think “I’ll figure it out.”
It will help you overcome you fear, and can be very liberating.

John William Waterhouse Echo and Narcissus painting

John William Waterhouse Echo and Narcissus paintingJohn William Waterhouse The Lady of Shalott paintingLeonardo da Vinci The Last Supper painting
when a Roman colonel caught at his leg and pulled him off the saddle: he knew German and he knew the absurd veneration that Germans have for their wives and mothers. Suppose Flavius really meant to desert? So he told him not to bother about Hermann or believe his lies. But Flavius couldn't resist having the last word. He dried Then it was Hermann's turn to weep and storm and accuse Flavius of telling lies. Germanicus privately detailed a captain to watch Flavius very carefully during the next battle and at the least sign of treachery to run him through.his eyes and shouted across: "I saw your father-in-law last week. He'd got a nice place near Lyons. He told me that Thrusnelda came to him because she couldn't bear the disgrace of being married to a man who broke his solemn oath as an ally of Rome and betrayed a friend at whose table he had eaten. She said that the only way you can ever win back her esteem is by not using the arms which she gave you on your day against your sworn friends. She has not been unfaithful to you yet, but that won't last long if you don't instantly come to your senses."

Paul Cezanne Table Corner painting

Paul Cezanne Table Corner painting
William Bouguereau Innocence painting
God Augustus walks in Heaven,
Ghost Marcellus swims in Styx, Julia's dead and gone to join him-
That's the end of Julia's tricks.
But our Eagles still are straying
And by shame and sorrow stirred To the tomb of God Augustus
We'll bring back each wandering bird.
There was another which began;
German Hermann lost his sweetheart And his little pot of beer but I can't remember the finish, and the verse is not important except as reminding me to tell of Hermann's "sweetheart". She was the daughter of a chieftain called, in German, Siegstoss or something of the sort; but his Roman name was
Bill Brauer The Gold Dress painting
Segestes. He had been to Rome, like Hermann, and enrolled among the Knights, but unlike Hermann had felt morally bound by the oath of friendship he had sworn to Augustus. It was this Segestes who had warned Varus about Hermann and Segimerus and suggested that Varus should arrest them at the banquet to which he had invited them just before his unfortunate expedition started. Segestes had a favourite daughter whom Hermann had carried off and married and Segestes never forgave him for this injury. He could not, however

Francisco de Zurbaran paintings

Francisco de Zurbaran paintings
Guan zeju paintings
abandon the remainder of his transport Food was scarce and on the third day he had to plunge into the forest again. The casualties on the second day had not been severe, for a large number of the enemy were occupied plundering the wagons and carrying the loot away with them, but when the roll was called on the evening of the third day only a quarter of the original force were present to answer their names. On the fourth day Varus was still advancing, for he was too wrong-headed to admit defeat and abandon his original objective, but the weather, which had improved somewhat, now became worse than ever, and the Germans, who were accustomed to heavy rain, grew bolder and bolder as they saw resistance weakening. They came to closer quarters.
About noon Varus saw that all was over and killed himself rather than fall alive into the hands of the enemy. Most of the senior officers surviving followed his example, and many of the men. Only one officer kept his head-the same Cassius Caerea who fought that day in the amphitheatre. He was commanding the rear-guard, composed of mountaineers from Savoy
Gustav Klimt paintings

Mary Cassatt Tea painting

Mary Cassatt Tea paintingEdward Hopper Gas paintingEdward Hopper Ground Swell painting
THE YEAR BEFORE I CAME OF AGE AND MARRIED HAD BEEN a bad year for Rome. There was a series of earthquakes in the South of Italy which destroyed several cities. Little rain fell in the Spring and the crops looked miserable all over the country: then just before harvest time there were torrential storms which beat down and spoilt what little corn had come to ear. The downpour was so violent that the Tiber carried away the bridge and made the lower part of the City navigable by boat for seven days. A famine seemed threatening and Augustus sent commissioners to Egypt and other parts to buy huge quantities of corn. The public granaries had been depleted because of a bad harvest the year before-though not so bad as this. The commissioners succeeded in buying a certain amount of corn, but at a high price and not really enough. There

Emile Munier A Special Moment painting

Emile Munier A Special Moment paintingFilippino Lippi Adoration of the Child paintingBartolome Esteban Murillo Madonna and Child painting
Tiberius had the news about Julia sent him at once by Livia. At her prompting he wrote two or three letters to Augustus, begging him to forgive Julia, as he did himself, and saying that however badly she had behaved as a wife he wished her to keep all the property that he had at any time made over to her. Augustus did not answer. He firmly believed that Tiberius's original coldness and cruelty to Julia, and the example of immorality he had given her, were responsible for her moral degeneration. So far from recalling him from banishment he refused even to renew his Protectorate when it came to an end the following year.
There is a soldiers' marching-ballad called The Three griefs of Lord Augustus, composed in the rough tragicomic style of the camp, which was sung many years later by the regiments stationed in Germany. The theme is that Augustus grieved first for Marcellus, next for Julia, and the third time for the lost Eagles of Varus. Deeply for Marcellus's death, more deeply for Julia's

Thomas Kinkade Serenity Cove painting

Thomas Kinkade Serenity Cove paintingThomas Kinkade San Francisco Lombard Street paintingThomas Kinkade NASCAR THUNDER painting
pressed curds."
"Keep your maggots to yourself' Octavia flared at her.
Livia herself dressed very richly and used the most expensive Asiatic perfumes; but she did not allow the least extravagance in her household, which she made a boast of running in old-fashioned Roman style. Her rules were plain but plentiful food, regular family worship, no hot baths after meals, constant work for everyone, and no waste. "Everyone" was not merely the slaves and freedmen but every member of the family. The unfortunate child Julia was expected to set an example of industry. She led a very weary life. She had a regular daily task of wool to card and spin, and cloth to weave, and needlework to do, and was made to rise from her hard bed at dawn, and even before dawn, in the winter months, to be able to get through it. And because her stepmother believed in a liberal education for girls, she was set, among other tasks, to leam the whole of Homer's lliad and Odyssey by heart.
Julia had also to keep a detailed diary, for Livia's

Gustav Klimt dancer painting

Gustav Klimt dancer paintingGustav Klimt Adam and Eve paintingFrederic Remington The Cowboy painting
high treason because once when her coach was held up by a street crowd she called out, "If only my brother was alive He knew how to clear crowds away. He used his whip." When one of the Protectors of the People ("tribunes", in Latin) came up and angrily ordered her to be silent, reminding her that her brother, by his impiety, had lost a Roman fleet: "A very good reason for wishing him alive," she retorted. "He might lose another fleet, and then another. God willing, and thin off this wretched crowd a little." And she added: "You're a Protector of the People, I see, and your person is legally inviolable, but don't forget that we Claudians have had some of you protectors well thrashed before now, and be damned to your inviolability."
That was exactly how my grandmother Livia spoke at this time of the Roman people. "Rabble and slaves. The Republic was always a humbug. What Rome really needs

John William Waterhouse Waterhouse Narcissus painting

John William Waterhouse Waterhouse Narcissus painting
John William Waterhouse waterhouse Ophelia painting
Is eating healthy a challenge for you? Find healthy foods you love. Experiment with new recipes and have fun testing them out. * Is training for a marathon tough? Learn to enjoy the quiet of the early morning, the contemplative nature of running, or the beautiful nature that surrounds you. Or play some songs that pump you up. Or listen to interesting audiobooks as you run.
Find the enjoyable parts of any activity, and focus on those. In time, you can really learn to love something. Or, switch to something you love more and stick to that.
These two principles, especially when used together, can be powerful
John William Waterhouse Hylas and the Nymphs painting
your progress up in your office or other public place. * Post pictures of yourself each day. One guy did this and created a video of his progress — it was amazing to watch.

Francois Boucher The Toilet of Venus painting

Francois Boucher The Toilet of Venus paintingFrancois Boucher The Interrupted Sleep paintingFrancois Boucher Leda and the Swan painting
things. Some great thinkers have flashes of inspiration in the bath (Archimedes’ Eureka moment comes to mind…). I’m sure that you’ve had your own experience that sometimes the solution to a tricky problem, or a new insight on life, comes when you’re just relaxing.
Letting yourself take the time you need, without feeling guilty, means that you’ll be able to support your family and friends with your perspective on problems or situations that they might be in. You’ll be in a better state to not only cope with, but excel in, your own life.
Do you consciously act in your own best interests? Have you ever felt guilty about doing so? How does putting yourself first help you to be a better human being?

William Bouguereau The Broken Pitcher painting

William Bouguereau The Broken Pitcher painting
William Bouguereau Love Takes Flight painting
Leonardo da Vinci Lady With An Ermine painting
She went on down the hall and he watched her. What was she doing with the pipes and the ash trays, he wondered. He considered sneaking behind her, for he knew that she could not see at all well, yet he would be sure to get caught, for her hearing was very sharp. All the same, he sneaked along to the back of the hall and watched her empty the ashes into the garbage pail and rap out the pipes against its rim. Then she stood with the pipes in her hand, looking around uncertainly; finally she put the pipes and the ash tray on the cupboard shelf, and set the smoking stand in the corner of the kitchen behind the stove. He went back along the hall on tiptoe and into the sitting room.
Catherine sat in the little chair by the side window with a picture book on her knees. Her crayons were all over the window sill and she was working intently with an orange crayon. She looked up when he came in and looked down again and kept on working.
He did not want to help her, be wanted to be my himself and see if he could find the paper with the names in it, but he felt that he ought to try to be good, for by now he

Pierre Auguste Renoir Sleeping Girl painting

Pierre Auguste Renoir Sleeping Girl paintingPierre Auguste Renoir Dance at Bougival I paintingThomas Kinkade The Garden of Prayer painting
He could not understand what amused them so much about this game, or why they should pretend to be all kindness and interest for the sake of deceiving him into doing something still again that he knew they knew better than to do, but it gradually became clear to him that no matter how much they pretended good, they always meant meanness, and that the only way to guard against this was never to believe them, and never to do what they asked him to. And so in time he found that no matter how nice they asked, he was not deceived by them and would not tell them his name, and this made him feel much better, except that now they seemed to have much less interest in him. He did not want them to go by without even looking at him, or just saying something mean or sneering as they passed, pretending so successfully that they meant to hit him with their books, that he had to duck; he only wanted them not to tease and fool him; he only wanted them to be

William Bouguereau The Broken Pitcher painting

William Bouguereau The Broken Pitcher painting
William Bouguereau Love Takes Flight painting
Leonardo da Vinci Lady With An Ermine painting
provide a fair deal. In an equal transaction (where you offer as much value as you take), there should be no need to feel guilty. It’s the times when you offer less than you’re asking for that being pushy isn’t ethical.Beyond Selling
I think this idea has merit beyond the world of sales and persuading other people. I believe it is an idea that fits with how life often works.
Think about the last time you gave up on a project because you were getting mixed feedback. You assumed that a lack of response meant a lack of interest. When often, a lack of response simply means a lack of persistence on your side. Many goals, even those you eventually achieve, have moments where it seems like you aren’t making any progress.
The people who succeed in life are the same people who don’t give up before they hear a clear “no”. Even if you aren’t remotely involved in sales or marketing professionally, be the kind of person

Albert Bierstadt In the Mountains painting

Albert Bierstadt In the Mountains paintingAlbert Bierstadt Yosemite Valley paintingClaude Monet The Red Boats Argenteuil painting
Catherine turned her head in courteous inquiry.
“Trying—to hold—herself—together!”
She winced. “Don’t—shout at me, Joel. Just speak distinctly and I can hear you.”
“I’m sorry,” he said; he knew she had not heard. He leaned close to her ear. “I’m sorry,” he said again, carefully and not too loudly. “Jumpy, that’s all.”
“No matter,” she said in that level of her voice which was already old.
He watched her a moment, and sighed with sorrow for her, and said, “We’ll know before long.”
“Yes,” she said. “I presume.” She relaxed her hands in her sewing and gazed out across the shadowy room.
It became mere useless torment to watch her; he went back to The New Republic.
“I wonder how it happened,” she said, after a while.

Rembrandt Susanna and the Elders painting

Rembrandt Susanna and the Elders paintingRembrandt History Painting paintingJean Auguste Dominique Ingres Perseus and Andromeda painting
Waking in darkness, he saw the window. Curtains, a tall, cloven wave, towered almost to the floor. Transparent, manifold, scalloped along their inward edges like the valves of a sea creature, they moved delectably on the air of the open window.
Where they were touched by the carbon light of the street lamp, they were as white as sugar. The extravagant foliage which had been wrought into them by machinery showed even more sharply white where the light touched, and elsewhere was black in the limp cloth.
The light put the shadows of moving leaves against

Georges Seurat Sunday Afternoon on the Island of la Grande Jatte painting

Georges Seurat Sunday Afternoon on the Island of la Grande Jatte paintingWilliam Blake Songs of Innocence paintingVincent van Gogh Red vineyards painting
could not like him, as almost everyone else liked him. She knew that if it was Jay’s mother who lay dying, there would be no question of her grief, or inadequacy to her husband; and that was a fair measure of how little she really cared for his father. She wondered why she liked him so little (for to say that she actually disliked him, she earnestly assured herself, would be putting it falsely). She realized that it was mainly because everyone forgave him so much. and liked him so well in spite of his shortcomings, and because he accepted their forgiveness and liking so casually, as if this were his natural due or, worse, as if he didn’t even realize anything about it. And the worst of this, the thing she resented with enduring anger and distaste, was the burden he had constantly imposed on his wife, and her perfect patience with him, as if she didn’t even know it was a burden or that he was taking advantage. It was this unconsciousness in both of them that she could not abide, and if only once Jay’s mother had shown one spark of anger, of realization, Mary felt she might have begun to be able to like him. But this brought her into a resentment, almost a dislike, of

Claude Theberge The Race painting

Claude Theberge The Race paintingClaude Theberge the pink veil paintingClaude Theberge One Friday Evening Downtown painting
made absolute and my former wife married for the second time. Julia would be free in September. The nearer our marriage got, the more wistfully, I noticed, Julia spoke of it; war was growing nearer, too - we neither of us doubted that - but Julia’s tender, remote, it sometimes seemed, desperate longing did not come from any uncertainty outside herself; it suddenly darkened, too, into brief accesses of hate when she seemed to throw herself against the restraints of her love for me like a caged animal against the bars. I was summoned to the War Office, interviewed, and put on a list in case of emergency; Cordelia also, on another list; lists were becoming part of our lives once more, as they had been at school. Everything was being got ready for the coming ‘Emergency’. No one

Edgar Degas Ballerina and Lady with a Fan painting

Edgar Degas Ballerina and Lady with a Fan paintingEdgar Degas At the Milliners paintingFrida Kahlo Without Hope painting
The rooms began to fill and I was soon busy being civil. My wife was everywhere, greeting people, introducing people, deftly transforming the crowd into a party. I saw her lead friends forward one after another to the subscription list that had been opened for the book of Ryder’s Latin America I heard her say: ‘No, darling, I’m not at all surprised, but you wouldn’t expect me to be, would you? You see Charles lives for one thing - Beauty. I think he got bored with finding it ready-made in England; he had to go and create it for himself. He wanted new worlds to conquer. After all, he has said the last word about country houses, hasn’t he? Not, I mean, that he’s given that up altogether. I’m sure he’ll always do one or two more for friends.’ A photographer brought us together, flashed a lamp in our faces, and let us part. Presently there was the slight hush and edging away which follows the entry of a royal party. I saw my wife curtsey and heard her say: ‘Oh, sir, you are sweet’; then I was led into the clearing and the Duke of Clarence said: ‘Pretty hot out there I should think.’ ‘It was, sir.’

Richard Leblanc Sunlight Coast detail painting

Richard Leblanc Sunlight Coast detail paintingUnknown Artist Henry Brown Fuller Illusions Before 1901 paintingUnknown Artist Brent Heighton After the Rain painting
was suffused from scores of hollows, giving an even glow, casting no shadows - the whole place hummed from its hundred ventilators and vibrated with the turn of the great engines below. ‘Here I am,’ I thought, ‘back from the jungle, back from the ruins. Here where wealth is no longer gorgeous and power has no dignity. Quomodo sedet sola civitas’ (for I had heard that great lament, which Cordelia once quoted to me in the drawing-room of Marchmain House, sung by a half-caste choir in Guatemala, nearly a year ago). A steward came up to me.
‘Can I get you anything, sir?’
‘A whisky and soda, not iced.’
‘I’m sorry, sir, all the soda is iced.’
‘Is the water iced, too?’
‘Oh yes, sir.’
‘Well, it, doesn’t matter.’
He trotted off, puzzled, soundless in the pervading

Steve Thoms Field of Red and Gold painting

Steve Thoms Field of Red and Gold paintingRichard Leblanc Valley of Sunflowers paintingRichard Leblanc Valley of Poppies painting
sweet...Yes, I’ve got Charles back from the wilds at last; isn’t it lovely...What a treat seeing your name in the list! It’s made my trip...darling, we were at the Savoy-Carlton, too; how can we have missed you?’...Sometimes she turned to me and said: ‘I have to make sure you’re still really there. I haven’t got used to it yet.’ I went up and out as we steamed slowly down the river to one of the great glass cases where the passengers stood to watch the land slip by. ‘Such a lot of friends,’ my wife had said. They looked a strange crowd to me; the emotions of leave-taking were just beginning to subside; some of them, who had been drinking till the last moment with those who were seeing them off, were still boisterous; others were planning where they, would have their deck chairs; the band played unnoticed - all were as restless as ants. I turned into

Henri Rousseau Merry Jesters painting

Henri Rousseau Merry Jesters paintingHenri Rousseau Landscape with Cattle paintingHenri Rousseau Horse Attacked by a Jaguar painting
the last decade of their grandeur, Englishmen seemed for the first time to become conscious of what before was taken for granted, and to salute their achievement at the moment of extinction. Hence my prosperity, far beyond my merits; my work had nothing to recommend it except my growing technical skill, enthusiasm for my subject, and independence of popular notions.
The financial slump of the period, which left many painters without employment, served to enhance my success, which was, indeed, itself a symptom of the decline. When the water-holes were dry people sought to drink at the mirage. After my first exhibition I was called to all parts of the country to make portraits of houses that were soon to be deserted or debased; indeed, my arrival seemed often to be only a few paces ahead of the auctioneer’s, a presage of doom.

Claude Theberge The Race painting

Claude Theberge The Race paintingClaude Theberge the pink veil paintingClaude Theberge One Friday Evening Downtown painting
is. But the running away - he ran away, too, you know. It was as you said just now, he was ashamed of being unhappy. Both of them unhappy, ashamed, and running away. It’s too pitiful. The men I grew up with’ - and her great eyes moved from the embroidery to the three miniatures in the folding leathecase on the chimney-piece - ‘were not like that. I simply don’t understand it. Do you, Charles?’
‘Only very little.’
‘And yet Sebastian is fonder of you than of any of us, you know. You’ve got to help him. I can’t.’
I have here compressed into a few sentences what, there, required many. Lady Marchmain was not diffuse, but she took hold of her subject in a feminine, flirtatious way, circling, approaching, retreating, feinting; she