George Eliot: Middlemarch

BOOK VI. THE WIDOW AND THE WIFE. 60. CHAPTER LX. (continued)

"Who is it you've picked up, Bam?" said Mr. Horrock, aside.

"Ask him yourself," returned Mr. Bambridge. "He said he'd just turned in from the road."

Mr. Horrock eyed the stranger, who was leaning back against his stick with one hand, using his toothpick with the other, and looking about him with a certain restlessness apparently under the silence imposed on him by circumstances.

At length the "Supper at Emmaus" was brought forward, to Wills immense relief, for he was getting so tired of the proceedings that he had drawn back a little and leaned his shoulder against the wall just behind the auctioneer. He now came forward again, and his eye caught the conspicuous stranger, who, rather to his surprise, was staring at him markedly. But Will was immediately appealed to by Mr. Trumbull.

"Yes, Mr. Ladislaw, yes; this interests you as a connoissURE, I think. It is some pleasure," the auctioneer went on with a rising fervor, "to have a picture like this to show to a company of ladies and gentlemen--a picture worth any sum to an individual whose means were on a level with his judgment. It is a painting of the Italian school--by the celebrated Guydo, the greatest painter in the world, the chief of the Old Masters, as they are called-- I take it, because they were up to a thing or two beyond most of us-- in possession of secrets now lost to the bulk of mankind. Let me tell you, gentlemen, I have seen a great many pictures by the Old Masters, and they are not all up to this mark--some of them are darker than you might like and not family subjects. But here is a Guydo--the frame alone is worth pounds--which any lady might be proud to hang up--a suitable thing for what we call a refectory in a charitable institution, if any gentleman of the Corporation wished to show his munifiCENCE. Turn it a little, sir? yes. Joseph, turn it a little towards Mr. Ladislaw--Mr. Ladislaw, having been abroad, understands the merit of these things, you observe."

All eyes were for a moment turned towards Will, who said, coolly, "Five pounds." The auctioneer burst out in deep remonstrance.