eBooks Base 2000

Amid all this glitter the face of pain and grief looked forth, not a whit
comforted. While we stood there, a woman, who had been praying, arose
from her knees and laid an offering of a single flower upon the shrine.
The corresponding arch, on the opposite side of the entrance, contained a
wax-work within a large glass case, representing the Nativity. I do not
remember how the Blessed Infant looked, but the Virgin was gorgeously
dressed in silks, satins, and gauzes, with spangles and ornaments of all
kinds, and, I believe, brooches of real diamonds on her bosom. Her
attire, judging from its freshness and newness of glitter, might have
been put on that very morning.

July 13th.--We went for the second time, this morning, to the Academy of
Fine Arts, and I looked pretty thoroughly at the Pre-Raphaelite pictures,
few of which are really worth looking at nowadays. Cimabue and Giotto
might certainly be dismissed, henceforth and forever, without any
detriment to the cause of good art.


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