Their lips begin to move.
A smile, almost imperceptible at first, spreads slowly, slowly, over their faces.
The crimson of their cheeks takes on a deeper hue.
Their eyes bend a most sweet and friendly look upon me.
The word “we” falls gently on my ear.
Another pause!
I lean forward, in most painful suspense, to catch the next faint syllable.
It came at last.
“Live!”
“They live!” I cried in a loud and joyous voice, “they live! I am not the sport of any strange divinity. These figures are not cold and senseless marble, but warm-blooded, breathing, thinking, living beings!”