48
PARTISAN REVIEW
into stupid factions, the greengrocer's and butcher's bills pile up,
but a ray of light, however slim, still glimmers in the kingdom of
darkness-the Knopf publishers have promised an advance and in
Rome the colonel of the centurions has been shot and wounded. A
small matter, but all the same good news . At any rate, he could
enjoy a quiet stroll with his neighbor, the tooth extractor Gruber,
and say, illustrating with his characteristically Volga palm turned
upwards: Well, well, Herr Gruber, you won't believe it , but it's a
perfect archtypically round breast, such a compact and solid little
watermelon . . .. This
HT
of mine was really no titan at all, just a
slightly perplexed and unhealthy patrician who bathed infrequently
and talked a lot. A neighbor like any other neighbor, a regular
citoyen .
I recited to him: "- ... as a result of the effects of relativity
the level represented by the variables Land S splits up into a series
of levels represented by the new quantity
J. . . ."
He heard me out with no particular show of enthusiasm, but
also with no strong reaction-as if he were making use of the pause
to get a word in about his little watermelon .
On one paradisical morning (judge this epithet by what was
said earlier), I noticed a thin crystal glass containing good wine on
the palm of my Historic Titan . On the pedestal below, curled up like
a pretzel, slept Arabella, her head on the historic shoes . My gaze
woke her up.
"Good morning!" she said, "Do you know that Pompeii is
threatened with destruction?"
" When?" I asked.
"Will three days from now suit you?" she inquired .
I thought a bit and replied, " Three days? That's a long time. "
"Maybe it'll be less . Make haste ."
"How did you happen to turn up here, Arabella? "
"I stumbled onto his lordship here in the bushes quite by
chance. He startled me, this poor abandoned child of history. He
spent a long time telling me about Astrakhan watermelons and, as
always, was grossly exaggerating. However, I listened to him the
whole night through. After all, he's been unfortunate and isn ' t
understood by anyone except his poor wife.
If
you trace the lineage
of Polovtsian aristocrats, he and I even turn out to be distant rela–
tives . It ' s sad that the European branch of our ancestors split off so
