The clergyman too had seemed affected. He had watched, with
turned-back head, the phenomenon from beginning to end, and at the
close, with a long indrawing of breath, had looked once at Laurie,
licked his dry lips with a motion that was audible in that profound
silence, and once more dropped his eyes. The ladies had been silent,
and all but motionless throughout.
Well, the rest had happened comparatively quickly.
Once more, after the lapse of a few minutes, the radiance had begun to
reform; but this time it had emerged almost immediately, diffused and
misty like a nebula; had hung again before the cabinet, and then, with
a strange, gently whirling motion, had seemed to arrange itself in
lines and curves.
Gradually, as he stared at it, it had begun to take the shape and
semblance of a head, swathed in drapery, with that same drapery,
hanging, as it appeared in folds, dripping downwards to the ground,
where it lost itself in vagueness. Then, as he still stared, conscious
of nothing but the amazing fact, features appeared to be
forming--first blots and lines as of shadow, finally eyes, nose,
mouth, and chin as of a young girl....
A moment later there was no longer a doubt.
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