said he , in a doubtful and meditative tone . `` Yes ; the perception of it grows more vivid the longer I look . It is certainly the same picture that I saw yesterday ; the dress , the features , all are the same , and yet something is altered . '' `` Is , then , the picture less like than it was yesterday ? '' inquired the painter , now drawing near with irrepressible interest . `` The features are perfect Elinor , '' answered Walter , `` and at the first glance the expression seemed also hers ; but I could fancy that the portrait has changed countenance while I have been looking at it . The eyes are fixed on mine with a strangely sad and anxious expression . Nay , it is grief and terror . Is this like Elinor ? '' `` Compare the living face with the pictured one , '' said the painter . Walter glanced sidelong at his mistress , and started . Motionless and absorbed , fascinated , as it were , in contemplation of Walter 's portrait , Elinor 's face had assumed precisely the expression of which he had just been complaining . Had she practised for whole hours before a mirror , she could not have caught the look so successfully . Had the picture itself been a mirror , it could not have thrown back her present aspect with stronger and more melancholy truth . She appeared quite unconscious of the dialogue between the artist and her lover . `` Elinor , '' exclaimed Walter , in amazement , `` what change has come over you ? '' She did not hear him nor desist from her fixed gaze till he seized her hand , and thus attracted her notice ; then with a sudden tremor she looked from the picture to the face of the original . `` Do you see no change in your portrait ? '' asked she . `` In mine ?
None , '' replied XXXXX , examining it .
Elinor Walter features first glance hours mirror portrait something tone