I wonder what old Kami would have said to that."
"When were you under Kami, man of extraordinary beginnings?"
"I studied with him for two years in Paris. He taught by personal magnetism.
All he ever said was, 'Continuez, mes enfants,' and you had to make the best
you could of that. He had a divine touch, and he knew something about colour.
Kami used to dream colour; I swear he could never have seen the genuine
article; but he evolved it; and it was good."
"Recollect some of those views in the Soudan?" said Torpenhow, with a provoking
drawl.
Dick squirmed in his place. "Don't! It makes me want to get out there again.
What colour that was! Opal and umber and amber and claret and brick-red and
sulphur--cockatoo-crest-sulphur--against brown, with a nigger-black rock
sticking up in the middle of it all, and a decorative frieze of camels
festooning in front of a pure pale turquoise sky." He began to walk up and
down. "And yet, you know, if you try to give these people the thing as God gave
it, keyed down to their comprehension and according to the powers He has given
you----"
"Modest man! Go on."
"Half a dozen epicene young pagans who haven't even been to Algiers will tell
you, first, that your notion is borrowed, and, secondly, that it isn't Art.
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