'She's a good deal fairer, though, than any
Eastern women I've seen; but then I suppose she has worn a veil al
her life up to now. Most of 'em take sly peeps, and let in the hot
Oriental sun, and that tans 'em, don't you know?'
'And the original of this face?' I heard my mother say in a voice
that seemed agitated; 'could you tell me something about the original
of this remarkable face?' 'The model?' said Wilderspin. 'We are not
often asked about our models, but a model like that would endow
mediocrity itself with genius, for, though apparently, and by way of
beneficent illusion, the daughter of an earthly costermonger, she was
a wanderer from another and a better world. She is not more beautiful
here than when I saw her first in the sunlight on that memorable day,
at the corner of Essex Street, Strand, bare-headed, her shoulders
shining like patches of polished ivory here and there through the
rents in her tattered dress, while she stood gazing before her,
murmuring a verse of Scripture, perfectly unconscious whether she was
dressed in rags or velvet; her eyes--'
'The eyes--it _is_ the eyes, don't you know--it is the eyes that are
not quite right,' said Sleaford.
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