As soon as he had left, he rushed to the screen, and drew it back.  No; there was no further change in the picture.  It had received the news of Sibyl Vane’s death before he had known of it himself.  It was conscious of the events of life as they occurred.  The vicious cruelty that marred the fine lines of the mouth had, no doubt, appeared at the very moment that the girl had drunk the poison, whatever it was.  Or was it indifferent to results?  Did it merely take cognizance of what passed within the soul? he wondered, and hoped that some day he would see the change taking place before his very eyes, shuddering as he hoped it.

Poor Sibyl! what a romance it had all been!  She had often mimicked death on the stage, and at last Death himself had touched her, and brought her with him.  How had she played that dreadful scene?  Had she cursed him, as she died?  No; she had died for love of him, and love would always be a sacrament to him now.  She had atoned for everything, by the sacrifice she had made of her life.  He would not think any more of what she had made him go through, that horrible night at the theatre.  When he thought of her, it would be as a wonderful tragic figure to show Love had been a great reality.  A wonderful tragic figure?  Tears came to his eyes as he remembered her child-like look and winsome fanciful ways and shy tremulous grace.  He wiped them away hastily, and looked again at the picture.

He felt that the time had really come for making his choice.  Or had his choice already been made?  Yes, life had decided that for him,—­ life, and his own infinite curiosity about life.  Eternal youth, infinite passion, pleasures subtle and secret, wild joys and wilder sins,—­he was to have all these things.  The portrait was to bear the burden of his shame:  that was all.

A feeling of pain came over him as he thought of the desecration that was in store for the fair face on the canvas.  Once, in boyish mockery of Narcissus, he had kissed, or feigned to kiss, those painted lips that now smiled so cruelly at him.  Morning after morning he had sat before the portrait wondering at its beauty, almost enamoured of it, as it seemed to him at times.  Was it to alter now with every mood to which he yielded?  Was it to become a hideous and loathsome thing, to be hidden away in a locked room, to be shut out from the sunlight that had so often touched to brighter gold the waving wonder of the hair?  The pity of it! the pity of it!

For a moment he thought of praying that the horrible sympathy that existed between him and the picture might cease.  It had changed in answer to a prayer; perhaps in answer to a prayer it might remain unchanged.  And, yet, who, that knew anything about Life, would surrender the chance of remaining always young, however fantastic that chance might be, or with what fateful consequences it might be fraught?  Besides, was it really under his control?  Had it indeed been