the August noon
`` Artists should be better acquainted . '' He whispered a message to Paul , who sped to the inn and presently returned with a couple of the famous blue and white mugs frothing deliciously at the brims . The men , their lips to the bubbles , nodded to each other . The still beat of the August noon enveloped their bodies , but a streak of heavenly coolness trickled through their souls . Paul , looking at them enviously , longed to be grown up . Then followed a pleasant half-hour of desultory talk . Although the men did not make him , save for here and there a casual reference , the subject of their conversation , Paul , with the Vision shimmering before his eyes , was sensitive enough to perceive in a dim and elusive way that he was at the back of each man 's thoughts and that , for his sake , each was trying to obtain the measure of the other .