Now some of those who were in the hall or who came in with the tables
had not attended the funeral, and these were all astonished on seeing
me. They did not stare at me, but I, of course, saw the expression on
their faces, and noticed that the others who had made my acquaintance at
the grave-side whispered in their ears to explain my presence. This made
me extremely uncomfortable, and it was a relief when they began to go
out again.
One of the men was seated near me; he was of those who had assisted in
carrying the corpse, and he now turned to me and remarked: "You have
been a long time in the open air, and probably feel the change as much
as we do."
I assented, and he rose and walked away to the far end of the hall,
where a great door stood facing the one by which we had entered. From
the spot where I was--a distance of forty or fifty feet, perhaps--this
door appeared to be of polished slate of a very dark gray, its surface
ornamented with very large horse-chestnut leaves of brass or copper, or
both, for they varied in shade from bright yellow to deepest copper-red.
It was a double door with agate handles, and, first pressing on one
handle, then on the other, he thrust it back into the walls on either
side, revealing a new thing of beauty to my eyes, for behind the
vanished door was a window, the sight of which came suddenly before me
like a celestial vision. Sunshine, wind, cloud and rain had evidently
inspired the artist who designed it, but I did not at the time
understand the meaning of the symbolic figures appearing in the picture.
Below, with loosened dark golden-red hair and amber-colored garments
fluttering in the wind, stood a graceful female figure on the summit of
a gray rock; over the rock, and as high as her knees, slanted the thin
branches of some mountain shrub, the strong wind even now stripping them
of their remaining yellow and russet leaves, whirling them aloft and
away. Round the woman's head was a garland of ivy leaves, and she was
gazing aloft with expectant face, stretching up her arms, as if to
implore or receive some precious gift from the sky. Above, against the
slaty-gray cloud-wrack, four exquisite slender girl-forms appeared, with
loose hair, silver-gray drapery and gauzy wings as of ephemerae, flying
in pursuit of the cloud. Each carried a quantity of flowers, shaped like
lilies, in her dress, held up with the left hand; one carried red
lilies, another yellow, the third violet, and the last blue; and the
gauzy wings and drapery of each was also touched in places with the same
hue as the flowers she carried. Looking back in their flight they were
all with the disengaged hand throwing down lilies to the standing
figure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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