Faldoni, parts 2588 - 2591

 2588. And if I do discover its true color, I can’t help but ask myself, do the lights in the dressing room consist of fluorescents, or incandescent bulbs? And if they are fluorescents, will the color of the dress be more blue? And will it be more orange under an incandescent bulb?

 2589. It occurred to me that there might be no way to avoid the relativity of the color of the dress. Perhaps I could take the dress outside and look at it in the bright sunlight. In the light of day I might be able to discover the true color of a thing, and feel secure in the knowledge that even though the color of the dress in certain other uncontrollable situations might become confused, at least there was a place in the bright sunlight where its true reality could be found.

 2590. But then a cloud might pass in front of the sun, and the color of the dress I had assumed was truly a sort of salmon pinkish-tan would begin to turn slightly toward an antique rose sort of color. And later the sun might go down, and the dress become a dark golden purplish-blue. 

2591. Still later, in the middle of the night, a moonless, starless night, the dress would seem to my eyes to be pitch black, so black that it would be indistinguishable from its inky black surroundings.