Show THE KINGS PICTURE by HELEN BARRON bostwick HE 11 the council chamber cosas weary and sore of beart he called to auff the painter and spoke to him thus apart I 1 m sickened ot the laces ignoble hypocrites cowards and knaves 11 shall shrink in their shrunken measure amet slave in a realm ot slaves paint me a true man s picture gracious and wise and good dowered with the strength of heroes and the beauty of womanhood it shall hang in my inmost chamber that thither when I 1 retire it may fill my soul with its grandeur and warm it with sacred fire so the artist painted the picture and it hung in the palace half never a thing so lovely had garnished the stately wall f the king with head uncovered gazed on it with rapt delight j till it suddenly wore strange meaning baffled his questioning eight 3 for the form was the supplest courtier s perfect in every limb but the bearing was that of the henchman who filled the flagons tor him the brow was the priests who pondered his parchment early and late the eye was the wandering minstrel s who sang at the palace gate the lips half sad and halt mirthful with a fitful trembling grace were the very lips of a woman he bad kissed in the market place but the smiles which her cunes transfigured As a rose with its shimmer of dew was the smile of the wife who loved him queen ethelyn good and true learn then 0 king said the artist this truth that the picture tells that in every form of the huahn some hint of the highest dwells that scanning each living temple for the place where the veil is thin we may gather by beautiful glimpses the to a tod within |