“Ah, that is really beautiful,” she exclaimed, “too bad one can’t
capture the moment and make it permanent.”
“And why not?” I asked. “Would not any artist, even the most famous, be
proud if you gave him leave to paint you and make you immortal by means
of his brush.
“The very thought that this extra-ordinary beauty is to be lost to the
world,” I continued still watching her enthusiastically, “is
horrible—all this glorious facial expression, this mysterious eye with
its green fires, this demonic hair, this magnificence of body. The idea
fills me with a horror of death, of annihilation. But the hand of an
artist shall snatch you from this. You shall not like the rest of us
disappear absolutely and forever, without leaving a trace of your
having been. Your picture must live, even when you yourself have long
fallen to dust; your beauty must triumph beyond death!”
Wanda smiled.
“Too bad, that present-day Italy hasn’t a Titian or Raphael,” she said,
“but, perhaps, love will make amends for genius, who knows; our little
German might do?” She pondered.
“Yes, he shall paint you, and I will see to it that the god of love
mixes his colors.”
* * * * *
The young painter has established his studio in her villa; he is
completely in her net. He has just begun a Madonna, a Madonna with red
hair and green eyes! Only the idealism of a German would attempt to use
this thorough-bred woman as a model for a picture of virginity. The
poor fellow really is an almost bigger donkey than I am. Our misfortune
is that our Titania has discovered our ass’s ears too soon.
* * * * *
Now she laughs derisively at us, and how she laughs! I hear her
insolent melodious laughter in his studio, under the open window of
which I stand, jealously listening.
* * * * *
“Are you mad, me—ah, it is unbelievable, me as the Mother of God!” she
exclaimed and laughed again. “Wait a moment, I will show you another
picture of myself, one that I myself have painted, and you shall copy
it.”
Her head appeared in the window, luminous like a flame under the
sunlight.
“Gregor!”