Page "belles_lettres" Paragraph 261

The wife, Amra, and her lover are both savagely portrayed, she as incarnate sensuality, `` voluptuous '' and `` indolent '', possibly `` a mischief maker '', with `` a kind of luxurious cunning '' to set against her apparent simplicity, her `` birdlike brain ''.

Lautner, for his part, `` belonged to the present-day race of small artists, who do not demand the utmost of themselves '', and the bitter description of the type includes such epithets as `` wretched little poseurs '', the devastating indictment `` they do not know how to be wretched decently and in order '', and the somewhat extreme prophecy, so far not fulfilled: `` They will be destroyed ''.