icons as with cats: they do not belong to us but we belong to them.) Most of those included in the article strove to express, somewhat inarticulately, the distinctive effect produced by the icons hanging on their walls: “They’re very private and personal … I couldn’t eat in front of them.” (Incidentally a Greek or Russian Christian would find nothing odd about eating in front of an icon.) Only one person came to the heart of the matter, the late Count Alexis Bobrinskoy. Asked what part his icons