In ‘Tight Corners’, E.V. Lucas narrates the story of how he was rescued from humiliation at an auction house, by a sudden stroke of luck. Let’s read on and get to know how he got himself in a tight corner and found his way out of that situation. The talk was running on the critical situations in which we had found ourselves — those of us whose lives were adventurous enough to comprise any.
One man had been caught by the tide in Brittany and escaped by the skin of his teeth. Another had been on an elephant when a wounded tiger charged at it. A third had been on the top storey of a burning house. A fourth was torpedoed in the War.
“But you all talk,” said one of the company, “as though tight corners were always physical affairs. Surely they can be tighter when they are mental. The tightest corner I was ever in was at Christie’s.” “Christie’s?” “Yes. I had been lunching rather well at a club in St.
James’s Street with an old friend from abroad, and passing along King Street afterwards, he persuaded me to look in at the sale-room. The place was full. They were selling Barbizon pictures, and getting tremendous sums for each: two thousand, three thousand, for little bits of things — forest scenes, pools at evening, shepherdesses, the regular subjects. Nothing went for three figures at all.
Well, we watched for a little while and then I found myself bidding too just for fun. I had exactly sixty-three pounds in the bank and not enough securities to borrow five hundred on, and here I was nodding away to the auctioneer like a bloatocrat. a) Describe the activity that was going on in the sale-room at King Street. b) What can you say about the author’s attitude when he high-handedly participated in the auction?
“You’ll get caught,”my friend said to me. “No, I shan’t,” I said. “I’m not going to run any risks.” c) Why was the author sure he would not be caught? d) What made the author ignore his friend’s warning?
“And for a long time I didn’t. And then a picture was put up and a short red- faced man in a new top-hat — some well-known dealer — who had bought quite a number, electrified the room by starting the bidding at a figure a little higher than any that he had yet given or that anything had reached. -A-Prose-Tight - - :