The portrait had an odd effect on some people. Whatever his thoughts, they had not been pleasant ones. Lines bracketed the tight-set mouth and made deep vertical indentations between the narrowed eyes, which were focused, not on the beholder, but on some inner vision. It was not the face of a young man, although the subject had been barely thirty years of age when it was painted. Shoulder-length brown hair framed the man's spare face. Yet the overall impression was sober to the point of grimness. R ECENT cleaning had brought out the richness of the colors: a background of smoldering scarlet, the crimson of rubies in the jeweled collar and hat brooch, the gold threads in the undertunic displayed by open collar and slashed sleeves.
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