The Pictvre of Dorian Gray Author:Oscar Wilde Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. |ne afternoon, a month later, Dorian Gray was reclining in a luxurious arm-chair, in the little library of Lord Henry's house in Mayfair. It ... more »was, in its way, a very charming room, with its high paneled wainscoting of olive-stained oak, its cream- colored frieze and ceiling of raised plaster-work, and its brickdust felt carpet strewn with silk long-fringed Persian rugs. On a Uny satinwood table stood a statuette by Clodion, and beside it lay a copy of " Les Cent Nouvelles," bound for Margaret of Valois by Clovis Eve, and powdered with the gilt daisies that queen had selected for her device. Some large blue china jars and parrot-tulips were arranged on the mantel-shelf, and through the small leaded panes of the window streamed the apricot-colored light of a summer day in London. Lord Henry had not yet come in. He was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of time. So the lad was looking rather sulky, as with listless fingers he turned over the pages of an elaborately illustrated edition of '' Manon Les- caut'' that he had found in one of the bookcases. The formal monotonous ticking of the Louis Quatorzeclock annoyed him. Once or twice he thought of going away. At last he heard a step outside, and the door opened. " How late you are, Harry ! " he murmured. " I am afraid it is not Harry, Mr. Gray," answered a shrill voice. He glanced quickly round, and rose to his feet. '' I beg your pardon. I thought—'' '' You thought it was my husband. It is only his wife. You must let me introduce myself. I know you quite well by your photographs. I think my husband has got seventeen of them." " Not seventeen, Lady Henry? " "Well, eighteen, then. And I saw you with him the other night at the Opera." She laughed nervously ...« less