This was arrived at by a mere exchange of glances, a nod answered by a
tilt of the head, a wave of the hand, a kindly smile; and the thing was
done.
As the chairman remarked: "We must not forget that this gentleman was
living at the time opposite to the house in which the picture was
hanging, and it is possible that a light had been left burning in the
room that contained it.
"Those of us who are fathers--and I regret for my own part that I
cannot claim the distinction--will bear me out that the condition of a
man's mind during the painful period of waiting for news as to his
wife's progress is apt to depart from the normal and make room for
imaginings that in saner moments he must dismiss as absurd. There has
been a great deal of discussion and not a little criticism on the part
of the public as to the committee's wisdom in purchasing this picture,
and I am confident you will all agree with me that we could be
responsible for no greater folly than to work upon the canvas with
various removers on the bare hypothesis, unsupported by surface
suggestion, that the Madonna's arms actually contain a child painted in
the first intention.
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