Page:Journey Round my Room by Xiavier de Maistre trans. Henry Attwell.djvu/60



OME, Joannetti" I said, "hang up this picture." He had helped to clean it, and had no more notion than the man in the moon what had produced our chapter on the portrait. He it was, who, of his own accord, held out the wet sponge, and who, through that seemingly unimportant act, caused my soul to travel a hundred millions of leagues in a moment of time. Instead of restoring it to its place, he held it to examine it in his turn. A difficulty, a problem, gave him an inquisitive air, which I did not fail to observe.

"Well, and what fault do you find with that portrait?" said I.

" O, none at all, sir."