Unredden

Ils avoient eu la bonté de me faire dire plusieurs fois qu’ils vouloient me voir dès le lendemain de ma quarantaine finie. Et moi, qui savois la crainte que le roi avoit de la petite vérole, je résistai jusqu’à un commandement absolu, auquel il fallut obéir, quoique fort rouge, à quoi le grand froid contribuoit beaucoup, quelques drogues qu’on m’eût fait employer pour me dérougir.

Moi aussi j’ai chaud, et je possède cette supériorité ou infériorité sur vous que je m’embête d’une façon gigantesque. Je suis venu ici pour faire acte d’obéissance, parce qu’on m’a dit que l’air pur des montagnes me dérougirait et me calmerait les nerfs.

I was upstairs, trying hastily to fix my face and unredden my eyes when I heard a car on the drive and flew to a window to make sure that it was David.

“Sorry, Miss Jackson, that it is not your father greeting you,” she said, her words clipped. “But he is in the shower—” she glanced at Logan “—trying to unredden his eyes for his daughter’s arrival.”

Hortensie reitet zum Olm / Sie loht im Zorne, meutert / Hœr’Untier, Mimose lenzt / Entreete sie im Holzturm / Lunte her, zittere im Moos / Turmotter ziehe mein Los / Immer zeitlose Totenuhr

I pause, only briefly, before I am overcome with guilt. “I understand what you are saying, Carla. And I am sorry to everyone if I end up taking my frustrations out on you, when it wasn’t your fault. I am sorry. And thank you for your honesty. I will try to do better.” They nod. I catch my breath, unredden my cheeks, feel ashamed, feel like one of the worst teachers alive.

“Geez! Are you okay?” he was genuinely alarmed. The frigid air must have suspended my face’s efforts to dry, unredden, and generally recover itself. I sniffed involuntarily. “I’m fine. Just cold,” I lied.

Let me first ask one question: Who cares what the interstellar dust is made of? The typical optical astronomer couldn’t care less, for if you simply tell him the reddening law, particularly the ratio of total to selective extinction, he can unredden his clusters, correct the distance moduli, find the turnoff points, determine the age of the galaxy, and be happy! If this were the only astrophysical importance of the dust, I would stop now.