Federico Andreotti Discretion, The Better Part Of Valour painting

Federico Andreotti Discretion, The Better Part Of Valour paintingDirck Bouts Resurrection paintingDirck Bouts The Gathering of the Manna painting
least thrice; but he was as fumbling and abashed as she, so that they seemed to compete for the right to occupy the doghouse. The reason for Chamcha's discomfiture -- and he had not, let's recall, arrived in this awkward spirit, but in feisty, pugnacious mood -- was that he had realized, on seeing Pamela, with her too--bright brightness, her face like a saintly mask behind which who knows what worms feasted on rotting meat (he was alarmed by the hostile violence of the images arising from his unconscious), her shaven head under its absurd turban, her whisky breath, and the hard thing that had entered the little lines around her mouth, that he had quite simply fallen out of love, and would not want her back even should she want (which was improbable but not inconceivable) to return. The instant he became aware of this he commenced for some reason to feel guilty, and, as a result, at a conversational disadvantage. The white-haired dog was growling at him, too. He recalled that he'd never really cared for pets.
"I suppose," she addressed her glass, sitting at the old pine table in the spacious kitchen, "that what I did was unforgivable, huh?"