“Thank you, Maclean. Mrs. Gerome is exceedingly kind, and I have an invalid sister who will enjoy this beautiful fruit. Those nectarines would not disgrace Smyrna or Damascus, and are the first of the season.”
Robert passed through the hall, bearing the basket to the buggy; and at that instant there was a startling crash, as of some heavy article falling in the parlor. The dog sprang up with a howl, and Dr. Grey followed Mrs. Gerome into the room to ascertain the cause of the noise. A glance sufficed 183 to explain that a picture in a heavy frame had fallen from a hook above the mantelpiece, and in its descent overturned some tall vases, which now lay shattered on the hearth. Dr. Grey lifted the painting from the rubbish, and, as he turned the canvas towards the light, Mrs. Gerome said,—
“‘Une tristesse implacable, une effroyable fatalité pèse sui l’œuvre de l’artiste. Cela ressemble à une malediction amère, lancée sur le sort de l’humanité.’ There is, indeed, some fatality about that copy of Durer’s ‘Knight, Death, and the Devil,’ which seems really ill-omened, for this is the second time it has fallen. Thank you, sir. The frame only is injured, and I will not trouble you to remove it. Let it lean against the grate, until I have it rehung more securely.”
“It is too grim a picture for these walls, and stares at its companions like the mummy at Egyptian banquets.”
“On the contrary, it impresses me as grotesque in comparison with Durer’s ‘Melancholy,’ yonder, or with Holbein’s ‘Les Simulachres de la mort.’”
“Durer’s figure of ‘Melancholy’ has never satisfied me, and there is more ferocity than sadness in the countenance, which would serve quite as well for one of the Erinney hunting Orestes, even in the adytum at Delphi. The face is more sinister than sorrowful.”
“Since your opinion of that picture coincides so entirely with mine, tell me whether I have successfully grasped Coleridge’s dim ideal.”
Mrs. Gerome drew from a corner of the rear room an easel containing a finished but unframed picture; and, gathering up the lace curtain drooping before the arch, she held the folds aside, to allow the light to fall full on the canvas.
“Before you examine it, recall the description that suggested it.”
“I am sorry to say that my recollection of the passage is exceedingly vague and unsatisfactory. Will you oblige me by repeating it?”