Page:Journey Round my Room by Xiavier de Maistre trans. Henry Attwell.djvu/61

Rh "But come now, you have some remark to make, I know."

He placed it upright on one of the wings of my bureau, and then drawing back a little, "I wish, sir," he said, "that you would explain how it is that in whatever part of the room one may be, this portrait always watches you. In the morning, when I am making your bed, the face turns towards me; and if I move toward the window, it still looks at me, and follows me with its eyes as I go about." "So that, Joannetti," said I, if my room were full of people, that beautiful lady would eye every one, on all sides, at once." "Just so, sir." "She would smile on every comer and goer, just as she would on me?"

Joannetti gave no further answer. I stretched myself in my easy-chair, and, hanging down my head, gave myself up to the most serious meditations. What a ray