029 [son et lumière

[worksmart]

[The screen, grainy black, white and sepia, shows a tiny garret room. Bare floorboards, a music stand, a bed and, on the floor, one Robert Chase tending to a broken violin.]

Of course, choose now to wear through. Now. I haven't the money for bread, and I'm wasting centimes on strings. [He releases the snapped catgut cord from the violin's

Comments

[nobodyneedknow]

Problems, Robert?

son ][

[firedgold]

Would I be unique for having them?

son ][

[nobodyneedknow]

In your position?

I'm trouble free.

son ][

[firedgold]

Maybe it keeps me from getting bored.

son ][

[firedgold]

You have a better ear than most, Mlle. Montenegro. I may have sympathies for the plank, I'm not much use for entertainment myself tonight.

son ][

[firedgold]

I mean to imply that my mood has been poor today, not my playing.

Angela, if only to not stifle you.

[petitsaut]

You should find a patron. Someone wealthy, to pay for the things you need.

son ][

[firedgold]

Easier for the pretty young dancers, I think. I don't want someone else's money.

son ][

[petitsaut]

Easier for those of us who like to eat. And it seems you don't even want your own.

...That was beautiful.

son ][

[firedgold]

If it had been my own it couldn't have been so easily severed from me.

Thank you. It was tolerable.

son ][

[backbefore]

[Silence on this end so she can listen for a bit.]

A lot of people would hear the difference. [Pause.] You don't have the money for anything to eat?

son ][

[firedgold]

They might pretend to. Culture is the art of nodding and smiling in the right places.

[quiet, for a moment.]

I exaggerate, Mlle. Bennet. I have means, and only live slightly beyond them.

son ][

[backbefore]

Beyond them enough that you talk to yourself about them when you think no one is listening.

[There is noise in the background, a door opening and voices flooding in, then it's quiet again.]

I would hear the difference. Do you think I would just smile and nod in the right places, that I would pretend?

son ][

[firedgold]

Need tends to focus the mind, Mlle.

[He listens, and considers, keeping his own voice quiet without knowing where she is.]

If I called you too naïve for that kind of culture, would you take offense? I wouldn't mean it badly.

audio;

[treadingdawn]

You're going to hurt its feelings.

audio;

[firedgold]

It's used to me.

audio;

[treadingdawn]

Then you don't really mean to rid yourself of it?

audio;

[firedgold]

Its a Guarneri, worth more than the roof over my head. I'd sooner sell that.