from its confining ledges, and then drew it sidewise out of the frame. The movement reminded him of a photographer withdrawing the slide from a plate holder.
But he had no chance to let his mind dwell on that movement, for a moment later his eyes were startled by a sudden impression of gold and ivory merging into a flow of soft and melting line and re-emerging into vivid and gracious contours which brought a catch in his throat. He stood staring at this second canvas which had been hidden under the first, stood staring at it with that faint tingling of the nerve ends with which the astonished senses sometimes dizzily capitulate to sheer bewilderment.
"Great God!" he gasped. And there was reverence in that ejaculation, for all its sharpness.
"What is it?" whispered the girl, catching an echo of his amazement.
"Great God!" he repeated in his own whisper of awe. "It's a Titian!"
He saw before him the figure of a woman holding an apple. The apple was golden,
