But surely to oblige us immensely, Mr. X, you will consent to
give just one extra performance of an operation which, in fact, you
accomplish three hundred and sixty-five times every year without any
disastrous results.
CARVE. I don't look at it like that. Already my fellow-citizens,
expressing their conviction that I was a great artist, have buried me in
Westminster Abbey--not because I was a great artist, but because I
left a couple of hundred thousand pounds for a public object. And now my
fellow-citizens, here assembled, want me to convince them that I am a
great artist by taking my collar off. I won't do it. I simply will not
do it. It's too English. If any person wishes to be convinced that I'm
an artist and not a mountebank, let him look at my work (pointing
vaguely to a picture), because that's all the proof that I mean to
offer. If he is blind or shortsighted I regret it, but my neck isn't
going to help him.
TEXEL. Brilliant! Then we shall have the trial after all.
CYRUS. Yes, but your brilliant friend will be on his way to South
America before then.
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