Summary

Ludo rides the Circle Line and reads about a bathysphere. He recalls a painter who, having read the same passage, hired a bathysphere operator to take him deep into the ocean. After seeing the pure blue of the water, the painter “decided he could not paint blue” (383). He then searches out other ways to see pure versions of colors. The painter obtains a large volume of blood from a slaughterhouse, covers himself with the blood, and “[lies] down on one piece of paper and now on another” (383). He argues that “the colours around us were dead, but with blood it was easier to see” (384). The painter sells the pieces and becomes rich and famous; Ludo and Sibylla see his work at a gallery in London.

Ludo tricks an exhibition employee into giving him the painter’s address. He sneaks into his...