Page:Arthur Machen - The Hill of Dreams.djvu/119

THE HILL OF DREAMS much better in trying to improve his ordinary handwriting, which was both ugly and illegible. Indeed, there seemed but a poor demand for the limner's art. He sent some specimens of his skill to an 'artistic firm' in London; a verse of the 'Maud,' curiously emblazoned, and a Latin hymn with the notes pricked on a red stave. The firm wrote civilly, telling him that his work, though good, was not what they wanted, and enclosing an illuminated text. 'We have a great demand for this sort of thing,' they concluded, 'and if you care to attempt something in this style we should be pleased to look at it.' The said text was 'Thou, God, seest me.' The letter was of a degraded form, bearing much the same relation to the true character as a 'churchwarden gothic ' building does to Canterbury Cathedral; the colours were varied. The initial was pale gold, the h pink, the o black, the u blue, and the first letter was somehow connected with a bird's nest containing the young of the pigeon, who were waited on by the female bird. 'What a pretty text,' said Miss Deacon. 'I should like to nail it up in my room. Why don't you try to do something like that, Lucian? You might make something by it.' 109