My mother's death
taught me that my mission was to paint women, women whom I--being the
son of Mary Wilderspin--love and understand better than other men,
because my soul (once folded in her womb) is purer than other men's
souls.'
'Is not modesty a Gorgio virtue, Lady Sinfi?' murmured Cyril.
'Nothin' like a painter for thinkin' strong beer of hisself,' she
replied; 'but I likes him--oh, I likes him.'
'No man whose soul is stained by fleshly desire shall render in art
all that there is in a truly beautiful woman's face,' said
Wilderspin. 'I worked hard at imaginative painting; I worked for
years and years, Mr. Aylwin, but with scant success. It shames me to
say that I was at last discouraged. Hut, after a time, I began to
feel that the spirit-world was giving me a strength of vision second
only to the Master's own, and a cunning of hand greater than any
vouchsafed to man since the death of Raphael. This was once
stigmatised as egotism; but "Faith and Love," and the predella "Isis
behind the Veil," have told another story. I did not despair, I say;
for I knew the cause of my failure.
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