It was nearly a year before Tom told Celia the whole story of the two
portraits. The temptation and the effects of his paltering with it were
so real in his mind that he could not bring himself to confess until he
had made such effort as lay in his power at reparation. He finished the
original picture without more sittings, for Ralph, much to the artist's
relief, kept away from the studio. Then he left Salem, saying to himself
that his presence there might drive Ralph from home, where Tom wished
him to remain, that the influence of the face, if it really existed,
might help him.
"I do not know," Celia said thoughtfully, "whether the changes in Ralph
came from the pictures or from his disappointment; but in either case I
can see how real the whole was to you, and I am glad you stood the test;
although," she added, smiling fondly upon her husband, "I should have
known from the first that you would n't fail."
"But you must acknowledge," Tom responded, replying to the latter
portion of her remark by a caress, "that Ralph has come out splendidly
in the last year--since he has had that portrait to look at."
"Yes," she replied musingly, "and he is fast growing up to the
picture."