"Nobody can look that good without it on the stage. Versailles certainly makes those 5th Avenue chateaux look fake. But wouldn't you think that with all this luxury they would have thought up something better for bathrooms? I read all the people smelled to high heaven. You'd never think it from the paintings—like the Watteaus. That's what I mean about artists making everything look better than what they are."
"Not all painters—Lautrec, for instance."
"Why did he paint prostitutes so much?"
"Oh, painters always have done that—Titian, and others. No fuss about posing nude. And perhaps they find them less demanding than most people."
They ate sandwiches at a small café in a hollow down the park, and Lucy thought she never had enjoyed a meal so much, even the bitter coffee.
"Now, we'll go to your theatre," he told her.
They strolled between a guard of nymphs on pedestals who observed their tête-à-tête with benevolent approval. He touched her elbow to turn her down a narrow shaded path and then she saw, between two giant gilded unlit torches, a small amphitheatre backed by a green trellis over which the darker green of the forest beyond was spangled here and there with sun patches. Urns with clipped box stood at intervals at the head of narrow shell-studded cascades segmenting the terraced rows of seats down to the mossy stone arena, small as a stage, empty and waiting for the play to begin.
"This is what you always dream is how it should be," she cried, spellbound. "That woodsy freshness and elegance all in one. I can see now things here and there I could have done with the ballet after you gave me the idea, but I guess only an artist would know it from scratch."
"No one can start from scratch unless he is born in a desert and grows up alone without ever having heard, seen, or read what has happened. If you've been born in our world, even if you only draw a cube, there is always in the back of your head what has been accomplished. Perhaps now you can see ways to improve your ballet, but it was good to begin with."
"But it's awfully hard when you remember all the mistakes you made while you are trying to learn."
"Everyone makes mistakes."
"Just the same, it makes you sick of yourself when you think of how foolish you've been."
