Pagina 179 van 490

"Don't pay any attention to him, Dorian," said the painter. "I

understand what you mean, and I believe in this girl. Any one you

love must be marvellous, and any girl who has the effect you

describe must be fine and noble. To spiritualize one's age-that

is something worth doing. If this girl can give a soul to those

who have lived without one, if she can create the sense of beauty

in people whose lives have been sordid and ugly, if she can strip

them of their selfishness and lend them tears for sorrows that

are not their own, she is worthy of all your adoration, worthy of

the adoration of the world. This marriage is quite right. I did

not think so at first, but I admit it now. The gods made Sibyl

Vane for you. Without her you would have been incomplete."