DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27180#0186
PYRAMID AND TEMPLE
Babuschka made eyes; and the astounding fact impressed
her so deeply that all comment died on her lips. We cleared
the books and the tea-things away and set out the four
objects on the polished wood of the commode. The head
didn’t look well in the middle, under the woven wall plaque,
as I had originally planned, for this conventional arrange-
ment seemed too commonplace and not on a par with the
importance of the object; but we put it on the extreme left,
halfway back. On the extreme right, in the foreground, we
put the alabaster bowl, as a balance to the head, and in
between, in a picturesque zigzag, the bronze and the black
fish on whose back closer inspection revealed choice en-
graving. We went to the shop again today. If one devoted
a tithe of this lust for gazing to the things in a museum one
might learn something. Purchasableness is the most seduc-
tive quality of a work of art.
Dr. Beermann has got his crocodile. It was sunning
itself on a rock not far from the cataract, and is said to have
been two yards long. After the death-blow it still had
strength enough to disappear into the Nile and to expose the
doctor to our scepticism. The Jgers contention that its
corpse would come to the surface again in a day or two was
not taken seriously by anybody, not only because the doctor
frankly admitted that he had never shot so much as a hare,
but also because a beast two yards long, capable of gobbling
up a man, was hardly in place here. As an experienced doctor,
accustomed to reckoning with psychological factors in every
case, and penetratingly conscious of the limits of human
observation, Dr. Beermann treated his day’s sport with
cheerful self-mockery which suited his comfortable appear-
ance, and submitted with a good grace to the chaff of the
nurse. Only his blond table-companion, who had taken
part in the hunt, insisted on the coup de grace and had
followed every movement of the beast with her field-glasses.
Babuschka took this as a confirmation of her suspicions
166
Babuschka made eyes; and the astounding fact impressed
her so deeply that all comment died on her lips. We cleared
the books and the tea-things away and set out the four
objects on the polished wood of the commode. The head
didn’t look well in the middle, under the woven wall plaque,
as I had originally planned, for this conventional arrange-
ment seemed too commonplace and not on a par with the
importance of the object; but we put it on the extreme left,
halfway back. On the extreme right, in the foreground, we
put the alabaster bowl, as a balance to the head, and in
between, in a picturesque zigzag, the bronze and the black
fish on whose back closer inspection revealed choice en-
graving. We went to the shop again today. If one devoted
a tithe of this lust for gazing to the things in a museum one
might learn something. Purchasableness is the most seduc-
tive quality of a work of art.
Dr. Beermann has got his crocodile. It was sunning
itself on a rock not far from the cataract, and is said to have
been two yards long. After the death-blow it still had
strength enough to disappear into the Nile and to expose the
doctor to our scepticism. The Jgers contention that its
corpse would come to the surface again in a day or two was
not taken seriously by anybody, not only because the doctor
frankly admitted that he had never shot so much as a hare,
but also because a beast two yards long, capable of gobbling
up a man, was hardly in place here. As an experienced doctor,
accustomed to reckoning with psychological factors in every
case, and penetratingly conscious of the limits of human
observation, Dr. Beermann treated his day’s sport with
cheerful self-mockery which suited his comfortable appear-
ance, and submitted with a good grace to the chaff of the
nurse. Only his blond table-companion, who had taken
part in the hunt, insisted on the coup de grace and had
followed every movement of the beast with her field-glasses.
Babuschka took this as a confirmation of her suspicions
166