The Supreme Orchestra

Оглавление

David Turgeon. The Supreme Orchestra

About the Translator

About the Author

Отрывок из книги

The morning was blizzarding, the gallery deserted. Alban Wouters, proprietor, attended to his ledgers, eye wandering from time to time toward the backdrop of plump grey snowflakes, when an unknown man in a fur-lined cloak of military cut pushed open the door and entered the gallery along with a cruel gust of arctic wind.

Inclement weather sometimes brought just such unknown quantities out of the cold and into his establishment. You could recognize them as the strangers they were by their polite, noncommittal way of sauntering into the gallery’s main room and their inquisitive looks as they dutifully eyed the gallery walls with at best an imperfect understanding. Now, Alban Wouters had nothing against unknown quantities per se; confronted with just the right piece, an unknown quantity might metamorphose into a paying client, like larva to butterfly. In such instances, after pondering the work in wonder and at length, the unknown person might turn to the gallery owner and speak.

.....

‘Mr. Rose,’ said Alban Wouters obsequiously, writing a receipt.

‘If you would be so kind as to tell me the date,’ said Fabrice Mansaré.

.....