Rosie Little's Cautionary Tales for Girls by Danielle Wood Page B

and one to a professor who appear in his short stories. George Eliot may even have had an aquiline nose complex, given that she put one in Chapter 21 of Adam Bede , one in Chapter 58 of Middle-march and one in Chapter 7 of The Mill on the Floss . I could keep going, of course, but I would begin to bore you. Instead, I shall prove my point by leaving you some space to jot down the next five aquiline noses that you encounter in your reading career, and betting that it won’t be very long until they’re all filled:
    Aquiline Nose 1. ______________
Aquiline Nose 2. ______________
Aquiline Nose 3. ______________
Aquiline Nose 4. ______________
Aquiline Nose 5. ______________
    But what precisely does an aquiline nose look like? I am certain that I read and envisaged a great many before I ever bothered to find out. ‘Aquiline’, to me, had always suggested something watery; the kind of long, thin nose given to unfortunate dripping. When in fact, I have lately discovered, it is curved like the beak of an eagle and indicates — to some psychic face-readers at least — a strong will, independence and the promise of prosperous mid-years.
    ‘Well go away then.’
    ‘Yes, yes.’
    ‘You’re not going.’
    ‘Yes indeed. I have something for you, you see.’
    Eve noticed the convertible near her peach tree letterbox, and thought it unlikely that he was delivering parcels for Australia Post.
    ‘Are you a salesman?’
    ‘May I come inside? I find this winter of yours very cold.’
    ‘You are a salesman.’
    ‘Salesman. Such an unattractive word, don’t you think?’
    ‘Right. I’m not interested, thanks. I’ve got work to do. So if you don’t mind — goodbye.’
    ‘But I do have something for you,’ he said.
    ‘You’re still not going. Go on. Off you go.’
    ‘You don’t want then, to see a reproduction of the Cranach?’
    ‘Is this a joke?’
    ‘You are Eve?’
    ‘Did someone get you to come here for a joke? Do you work with Adam? Are you from a some radio station?’
    ‘No, no, but all reasonable suspicions, for I see I have hit the nail on the head. But it’s no practical joke. It’s obvious, my dear. Here you are, an artist in an apple grove. Of course you would be looking for the Cranach. Of course you should paint apple trees, and apples. Small red apples with sweet snow-white insides, the big green globes of the Cleos, the carnival stripes of the Cox’s Orange Pippin. Yes, especially those. Apples are your calling. It doesn’t take a genius to see that.’
    ‘Well, show me then.’
    He gestured to gathering storm clouds.
    ‘All right then. Just for a minute though. And I’m not buying anything, okay? Are you clear on that?’
    ‘Quite.’
    ‘Absolutely clear?’
    ‘ Absolutement ,’ he said, handing Eve an embossed postcard.’
    The Art of the World , in seven slender volumes bound in ivory leather, is the ideal accompaniment to the Encyclopaedia Atlantica . Do you have an interest in a particular artist? The Encyclopaedia Atlantica will provide you with in-depth information about the life and times of the artist, as well as an understanding of their place in history. But only The Art of the World can show you, in first-class colour reproduction, the works which earned them that place in the pages of the most respected encyclopaedia in the world.
    ‘Drivel,’ the salesman said.
    ‘Pardon?’
    ‘Drivel, don’t you think? Now I — I would never insult you with such pedestrian prose.’
    He fanned the seven pristine volumes across Eve’s table like a card sharp fans a deck.
    ‘Think of a painting, any painting,’ he dared her.
    ‘I just want to see the Cranach.’
    ‘Please. Think of any painting. Any painter. Any period. I think I may prove to you that any painting you desire to see before your eyes is here, within these pages.’
    ‘I told you I wasn’t buying anything, so you’re wasting your time.’
    ‘Time, I have plenty of. Think. Allow a painting to take shape in your mind.