"'Well, this is very remarkable. The fellow who carved this seems to
have borrowed my features--not very complimentary of him, I must say.
Don't you see the likeness?'
"It was solemn truth. Feature by feature that atrocious face was
simply a reproduction of Colliver's. As I stared in amazement, it
seemed more and more marvellous that I had not noticed the
resemblance before. True, each feature was distorted and exaggerated
to produce the utter malignity of its expression. But the face was
the face of Colliver. Nobody could have called him a handsome man,
but before this I had found Colliver not unpleasant to look upon.
Now the hate of the statue's face seemed to have reflected itself
upon him. I leant against a tree for support and passed my hand
across my brow as if to banish a fearful dream. But it was no dream,
and when he turned to speak again I could see lurking beneath the
assumed expression of the man all the evil passions and foul
wickedness engraved upon the stone.
"'Well,' he remarked, 'stranger things than this have happened, but
not much. You seem distressed, Trenoweth. Surely I, if any one,
have the right to be annoyed. But you let your antiquarian zeal
carry you too far. It's hardly fair to dig these poor remains from
their sepulchre and leave them to bleach beneath this tropical sun,
even in the interest of science.'
"With this he knelt down and began to gather--very reverently, as I
thought--the bones into a heap, and replace them in their tomb.
This done, he kicked up a lump or two of turf from the little lawn
and pressed it down upon them, humming to himself all the while.
Finally he rose and turned again towards me--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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