`` No , '' said Elinor , more calmly ; `` no dreary change can sadden us . '' This was said while they were approaching and had yet gained only an imperfect view of the pictures . The painter , after saluting them , busied himself at a table in completing a crayon sketch , leaving his visitors to form their own judgment as to his perfected labors . At intervals he sent a glance from beneath his deep eyebrows , watching their countenances in profile with his pencil suspended over the sketch . They had now stood some moments , each in front of the other 's picture , contemplating it with entranced attention , but without uttering a word . At length Walter stepped forward , then back , viewing Elinor 's portrait in various lights , and finally spoke . `` Is there not a change ? '' 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 XXXXX stronger and more melancholy truth .
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