As a child he had been
in the habit of watching a face through the curtain of steam around a
blacksmith's forge when hot iron is plunged into the water-trench,
and the face, my lord, though begrimed by earthly toil, was an
angel's. No wonder, then, that the painting in that veil is unique in
art. The flesh-tints that are pearly and yet rosy seem, as you
observe, to be breaking through it, and yet you cannot say what is
the actual expression on the face. But now come and see the picture
itself.'
My mother and Sleaford lingered for a moment longer, and then passed
between the folding-doors.
But I did not follow them; I could not. For now there was something
in the predella before me which fascinated me, I scarcely knew why.
It was the figure of the queen--the figure between the two sleeping
angels--the figure behind the veil, and expressed by the veil--that
enthralled me.
There was a turn about the outlined neck and head that riveted my
gaze; and, as I looked from these to the veil falling over the face,
a vision seemed to be rapidly growing before my eyes--a vision that
stopped my breath--a vision of a face struggling to express itself
through that snowy film--_whose_ face?
* * * * *
'In the crypt my senses had a kind of license to play me tricks,' I
murmured; 'but now and here my reason _shall_ conquer.
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