Page:Hermione and her little group of serious thinkers (1923, c1916).djvu/26

 Hermione But the Russian verve isn't Oriental, is it?

Don't you just dote on verve?

That's what makes Bakst so fascinating, don't you think?—his verve!

Though they do say that the Russian operas don't analyze as well as the German or the Italian ones—if you get what I mean.

Though for that matter, who analyzes them?

One may not know how to analyze an opera, and yet one may know what one likes!

I suppose there will be a frightful lot of imitations of Russian music and ballet now. Don't you just hate imitators?

One finds it everywhere—imitation! It's the sincerest flattery, they say. But that doesn't excuse it, do you think?

There's a girl—one of my friends, she says she is—who is always trying to imitate me. My expressions, you know, and the way I talk and walk, and all that sort of thing.

She gets some of my superficial mannerisms… but she can't quite do my things as if they were her own, you know… there is where the accent comes in again!