“Did you talk German?”
“There was no need; the man talked better English than anybody.”
“Why did it go off beautifully? Tell us about the beautiful things.”
The strange silent twilight, the reassuring shyness of all the guests; no attempt to talk about anything in particular; cool hard face and upright coldly jewelled body; the sense of success with each simple remark. The evening of music. Life-marked people; their marks showing without pain, covered, half-healed by the hours of kindness.
“It’s something in the Orlys.”
“What do you think it is?”
“It’s something frightfully beautiful.”
“They are very nice people.”
“That doesn’t mean anything at all.”
“The secret of beauty is colour and texture. The ointment will preserve the colour and the texture of your skin—in any climate. Read her the piece about the movement of the hands over a tea-tray.... In pouring out tea never allow the hands to fall slack, or below the level of the tray. Keep them well in view, moving deftly among the articles on the tray; sitting well back on the seat of the chair the body upright and a little inclined forward from the hips—see Chap.: III. “How to Sit”—so that the movements of the wrist and hands are in easy harmony with the whole body. Restrain the hands. Do not let the fingers splay out. Do not cramp them or allow any effort to appear in the movement of any part of the hand.”