“Ah,” sighed Lady Engleton, “I know I don’t extract the full flavour out of that!”
“It is a neglected art,” said the Professor. “After worrying himself with the problems of existence, as the human being is prone to do, as soon as existence is more or less secure and peaceful, a man can experience few things more enjoyable than to leave aside all problems and go out into the fields, into the sun, to feel the life in his veins, the world at the threshold of his five senses.”
“Ah, now you really are profound at last, Professor!”
“I thought it was risky to take you seriously.”
“No, no, I am delighted. The world at the threshold of one’s five senses. One has but to look and to listen and the beauty of things displays itself for our benefit. Yes, but that is what the artists say, not the Professors.”
“Even a Professor is human,” pleaded Theobald.
Valeria quoted some lines that she said expressed Professor Fortescue’s idea.
“Carry me out into the wind and the sunshine,
Into the beautiful world!”
Lady Engleton’s artistic instinct seemed to occupy itself less with the interpretation of Nature than with the appreciation of the handiwork of man. The lines did not stir her. Professor Theobald shared her indifference for the poetic expression, but not for the reality expressed.
“I quarrel with you about art,” said Lady Engleton. “Art is art, and nature is nature, both charming in their way, though I prefer art.”