A Couple Sitting on the River Bank Now I was alone again after the art course. It seemed inconceivable that I spent one whole week, from breakfast to dinner, with 13 English men and women in the English countryside. Thanks to the paintings, I could communicate with them. Without my paintings I wouldn't have been able to sustain conversation with them for so long. I don't know why, but my left instep was afflicted with a sprain. Probably I had got tired.