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“No trouble at all, Mr. Gray. I am delighted to be of any
when they reached the top landing. And he wiped his shiny
service to you. Which is the work of art, sir?”
forehead.
“This,” replied Dorian, moving the screen back. “Can you
“I am afraid it is rather heavy,” murmured Dorian as he
move it, covering and all, just as it is? I don’t want it to get
unlocked the door that opened into the room that was to
scratched going upstairs.”
keep for him the curious secret of his life and hide his soul
“There will be no difficulty, sir,” said the genial frame-
from the eyes of men.
maker, beginning, with the aid of his assistant, to unhook
He had not entered the place for more than four years—
the picture from the long brass chains by which it was sus-
not, indeed, since he had used it first as a play-room when
pended. “And, now, where shall we carry it to, Mr. Gray?”
he was a child, and then as a study when he grew somewhat
“I will show you the way, Mr. Hubbard, if you will kindly
older. It was a large, well-proportioned room, which had been
follow me. Or perhaps you had better go in front. I am afraid
specially built by the last Lord Kelso for the use of the little
108
Oscar Wilde
grandson whom, for his strange likeness to his mother, and
matter? No one could see it. He himself would not see it.
also for other reasons, he had always hated and desired to
Why should he watch the hideous corruption of his soul?
keep at a distance. It appeared to Dorian to have but little
He kept his youth—that was enough. And, besides, might
changed. There was the huge Italian cassone, with its fantas-
not his nature grow finer, after all? There was no reason that
tically painted panels and its tarnished gilt mouldings, in
the future should be so full of shame. Some love might come
which he had so often hidden himself as a boy. There the
across his life, and purify him, and shield him from those
satinwood book-case filled with his dog-eared schoolbooks.
sins that seemed to be already stirring in spirit and in flesh—
On the wall behind it was hanging the same ragged Flemish
those curious unpictured sins whose very mystery lent them
tapestry where a faded king and queen were playing chess in
their subtlety and their charm. Perhaps, some day, the cruel
a garden, while a company of hawkers rode by, carrying
look would have passed away from the scarlet sensitive mouth,
hooded birds on their gauntleted wrists. How well he re-
and he might show to the world Basil Hallward’s master-
membered it all! Every moment of his lonely childhood came
piece.
back to him as he looked round. He recalled the stainless
No; that was impossible. Hour by hour, and week by week,
purity of his boyish life, and it seemed horrible to him that it
the thing upon the canvas was growing old. It might escape
was here the fatal portrait was to be hidden away. How little
the hideousness of sin, but the hideousness of age was in
he had thought, in those dead days, of all that was in store
store for it. The cheeks would become hollow or flaccid. Yel-
for him!
low crow’s feet would creep round the fading eyes and make
But there was no other place in the house so secure from
them horrible. The hair would lose its brightness, the mouth
prying eyes as this. He had the key, and no one else could
would gape or droop, would be foolish or gross, as the mouths
enter it. Beneath its purple pall, the face painted on the can-
of old men are. There would be the wrinkled throat, the
vas could grow bestial, sodden, and unclean. What did it
cold, blue-veined hands, the twisted body, that he remem-
109
The Picture of Dorian Gray
bered in the grandfather who had been so stern to him in his
look of shy wonder in his rough uncomely face. He had never
boyhood. The picture had to be concealed. There was no
seen any one so marvellous.
help for it.
When the sound of their footsteps had died away, Dorian
“Bring it in, Mr. Hubbard, please,” he said, wearily, turn-
locked the door and put the key in his pocket. He felt safe
ing round. “I am sorry I kept you so long. I was thinking of
now. No one would ever look upon the horrible thing. No
something else.”
eye but his would ever see his shame.
“Always glad to have a rest, Mr. Gray,” answered the frame-
On reaching the library, he found that it was just after five
maker, who was still gasping for breath. “Where shall we put
o’clock and that the tea had been already brought up. On a
it, sir?”
little table of dark perfumed wood thickly incrusted with
“Oh, anywhere. Here: this will do. I don’t want to have it
nacre, a present from Lady Radley, his guardian’s wife, a pretty
hung up. Just lean it against the wall. Thanks.”
professional invalid who had spent the preceding winter in
“Might one look at the work of art, sir?”
Cairo, was lying a note from Lord Henry, and beside it was a
Dorian started. “It would not interest you, Mr. Hubbard,”
book bound in yellow paper, the cover slightly torn and the
he said, keeping his eye on the man. He felt ready to leap
edges soiled. A copy of the third edition of The St. James’s
upon him and fling him to the ground if he dared to lift the
Gazette had been placed on the tea-tray. It was evident that
gorgeous hanging that concealed the secret of his life. “I shan’t
Victor had returned. He wondered if he had met the men in
trouble you any more now. I am much obliged for your kind-
the hall as they were leaving the house and had wormed out
ness in coming round.”
of them what they had been doing. He would be sure to
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