friend, the critic, had gone, and there was nothing more to talk with him about.
Levin and Pestsof spent the intermission in discussing the merits and defects of the Wagnerian tendencies in music. Levin maintained that the mistake of Wagner and all his followers consisted in transferring music to the domain of an alien art, that poetry made the mistake when it tried to depict the features of the human face, which it was the province of painting to do, and as a concrete example of this kind of a mistake he adduced the sculptor who should try to express in marble the shades of poetic imagery rising round the figure of the poet on the pedestal.
"These shades are so far from being shades in the case of the sculptor, that they even rest on the steps," said Levin. This phrase pleased him, but he had a lurking suspicion that he had once used this same phrase before, and to Pestsof himself, and he felt confused.
Pestsof argued that art is one, and that it can reach its loftiest manifestations only by combining all its forms.
Levin could not listen to the second number on the program. Pestsof, who was standing near him, kept talking to him most of the time, criticizing it for its excessive, mawkish, affected simplicity, and comparing it to the simplicity of the Pre-Raphaelites in painting.
On his way out, he met various acquaintances, with whom he exchanged remarks on politics, music, and other topics; among others he saw Count Bohl, and the call which he should have made on him came to mind.
"Well, go quickly," said Natalie, to whom he confided this. "Perhaps the countess is not receiving. If so, you will come and join me at the meeting. You will have plenty of time."
