FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159  
160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   >>   >|  
acherib and his doings, which resemble these; this verse, for instance, I remember: "Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah did Sennacherib, King of Assyria, come up against all the fenced cities of Judah and took them. And Hezekiah, King of Judah, sent to the King of Assyria to Lachish," and so on. Well, there it actually is, you see. There's Sennacherib, and there's Lachish. Is it not glorious to think that this is a picture done at the time of those very events?' 'Yes. We did not quarrel this time, Ethelberta and I. If I may so put it, it is worse than quarrelling. We felt it was no use going on any longer, and so--Come, Faith, hear what I say, or else tell me that you won't hear, and that I may as well save my breath!' 'Yes, I will really listen,' she said, fluttering her eyelids in her concern at having been so abstracted, and excluding Sennacherib there and then from Christopher's affairs by the first settlement of her features to a present-day aspect, and her eyes upon his face. 'You said you had seen Ethelberta. Yes, and what did she say?' 'Was there ever anybody so provoking! Why, I have just told you!' 'Yes, yes; I remember now. You have parted. The subject is too large for me to know all at once what I think of it, and you must give me time, Kit. Speaking of Ethelberta reminds me of what I have done. I just looked into the Academy this morning--I thought I would surprise you by telling you about it. And what do you think I saw? Ethelberta--in the picture painted by Mr. Ladywell.' 'It is never hung?' said he, feeling that they were at one as to a topic at last. 'Yes. And the subject is an Elizabethan knight parting from a lady of the same period--the words explaining the picture being-- "Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing, And like enough thou know'st thy estimate." The lady is Ethelberta, to the shade of a hair--her living face; and the knight is--' 'Not Ladywell?' 'I think so; I am not sure.' 'No wonder I am dismissed! And yet she hates him. Well, come along, Faith. Women allow strange liberties in these days.' 25. THE ROYAL ACADEMY--THE FARNFIELD ESTATE Ethelberta was a firm believer in the kindly effects of artistic education upon the masses. She held that defilement of mind often arose from ignorance of eye; and her philanthropy being, by the simple force of her situation, of that sort which lingers in the neighbourhood of home,
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159  
160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Ethelberta
 

picture

 

Sennacherib

 

knight

 

remember

 
Lachish
 
Assyria
 

Ladywell

 
Hezekiah
 

subject


telling

 

explaining

 
possessing
 

surprise

 
Farewell
 

period

 
Elizabethan
 
painted
 

parting

 

feeling


liberties

 

defilement

 

masses

 

education

 

believer

 

kindly

 

effects

 

artistic

 

lingers

 

neighbourhood


situation

 
ignorance
 

philanthropy

 

simple

 

ESTATE

 
dismissed
 

estimate

 
living
 

ACADEMY

 
FARNFIELD

thought
 

strange

 
aspect
 
quarrelling
 

events

 

quarrel

 
longer
 

fourteenth

 
instance
 

acherib