They exhibited a certain sameness of motive,
and illustrated chiefly the different phases of what, in delicate terms,
may be called gallantry and coquetry; but they were strikingly clever and
expressive, and were at once very perfect cats and monkeys and very
natural men and women. I confess, however, that they failed to amuse me.
I was doubtless not in a mood to enjoy them, for they seemed to me
peculiarly cynical and vulgar. Their imitative felicity was revolting.
As I looked askance at the complacent little artist, brandishing them
between finger and thumb and caressing them with an amorous eye, he
seemed to me himself little more than an exceptionally intelligent ape. I
mustered an admiring grin, however, and he blew another blast. "My
figures are studied from life! I have a little menagerie of monkeys
whose frolics I contemplate by the hour. As for the cats, one has only
to look out of one's back window! Since I have begun to examine these
expressive little brutes, I have made many profound observations.
Speaking, signore, to a man of imagination, I may say that my little
designs are not without a philosophy of their own.
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