The picture was placed in a light, the visitor sat down before it.
A long pause ensued.
“Has he fainted?” thought Gatty, ironically; “he doesn't gabble.”
“If you do not mind painting before me,” said the visitor, “I should be glad if you would continue while I look into this picture.”
Gatty painted.
The visitor held his tongue.
At first the silence made the artist uneasy, but by degrees it began to give him pleasure; whoever this was, it was not one of the flies that had hitherto stung him, nor the jackdaws that had chattered him dead.
Glorious silence! he began to paint under its influence like one inspired.
Half an hour passed thus.
“What is the price of this work of art?”