His death would probably
bring some wanderers to the fold; it must of a surety be long remembered as
the greatest sermon lived and preached by a Luke Gospeler. Lulled by the
humming woof and warp of such reflections, his mind nightly passed into the
unconsciousness of sleep; and quickened by subsequent visions, the brain
enacted these imaginings with an added gloom and that tremendous appearance
of reality proper to the domain of dreams.
Thus the days sped and grew shorter as December waned. Then, at the end of
the second week of his work, Noy chanced to read that an Exhibition at the
Institute of Painters in Oils was about to close; and not yet having
visited that collection he set out on the morning of the following day to
do so.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
"JOE'S SHIP"
According to his custom, Noy worked through the exhibition catalogue for
each room before entering it. The hour was an early one, and but few
persons had as yet penetrated to the central part of the gallery. For
these, however, an experience of a singular character was now in store.
Wandering hither and thither in groups and talking in subdued voices after
the manner of persons in such a place, all were suddenly conscious of a
loud inarticulate cry. The sudden volume of sound denoted mixed emotions,
but amazement and grief were throned upon it, and the exclamation came from
a man standing now stiff and spellbound before "Joe's Ship," the famous
masterpiece of John Barron.
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