Chapter XXVIIUpstairs the room was already done and the Colonel, who had anticipated a possible messiness of locale, was pleased.
'Stand by it once,' he said. Then remembered to add, 'Please.'
She stood by it, and he looked at it from where he had looked at it last night.
'There's no comparison, of course,' he said. 'I don't mean likeness. The likeness is excellent.'
'Was there supposed to be a comparison?' the girl asked, and swung her head back and stood there with the black sweater of the portrait.
'Of course not. But last night, and at first light, I talked to the portrait as though it were you.'
'That was nice of you and shows it has served some useful purpose.'
They were lying now on the bed and the girl said to him, 'Don't you ever close windows?'
'No. Do you?'
'Only when i
