When using the same threads as a woof, she separated them
with the point of her needle to find the design below. She followed this
same drawing, recovered the gold threads with stitches of silk across,
which she assorted according to the colours of the model. In the shaded
parts the silk completely hid the gold; in the half-lights the stitches
of silk were farther and farther apart, while the real lights were made
by gold alone, entirely uncovered. It was thus the shaded gold, that
most beautiful of all work, the foundation being modified by the silks,
making a picture of mellow colours as if warmed from beneath by a glory
and a mystic light.
"Oh!" suddenly said Hubert, who began to stretch out the banner by
separating with his fingers the cords of the trellis, "the masterpiece
of a woman who embroidered in the olden time was always in this
difficult work. To become a member of the Corporation she had to make,
as it is written in the statutes, a figure by itself in shaded gold,
a sixth part as tall as if life-size. You would have been received, my
Angelique."
Again there was an unbroken silence. Felicien watched her constantly, as
she stooped forward, absorbed in her task, quite as if she were entirely
alone.
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