other evening about that for which we should look in a picture. Be
sympathetic. Put yourself in old Cimabue's place and in that of the
people who had known only such figures in painting as the _Magdalen_ you
saw last week in the Academy. Then, though these figures are so stiff
and almost lifeless, though the picture is Byzantine in character, you
will see beyond all this a faint expression in the Madonna's face, a
little life and action in the Christ-child, who holds up his tiny hand
in blessing.

"If you do not look for this you may miss it,--miss all that which gives
worth to Cimabue and his art. As thoughtful a mind as that of our own
Hawthorne saw only the false in it, and missed the attempt for truth;
and so said he only wished 'another procession would come and take the
picture from the church, and reverently burn it.' Ah, Malcom, I see your
eyes found that in your reading, and you thought in what good company
you might be."

"What kind of painting is it?" queried Barbara, as a few minutes later
they stood in the little chapel, and looked up at Cimabue's quaint
_Madonna and Child_.

"It is called _tempera_, and is laid upon wood. In this process the
paints are mixed with some glutinous substance, such as the albumen of
eggs, glue, etc., which causes them to adhere to the surface on which
they are placed."

"What do you think was the cause of Cimabue's taking such an advance
step, Mr. Sumner?" asked Howard Sinclair, after a pause, during which
all studied the picture.