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1、The PictureFor several years Mr Williams worked for the museum at the University of Oxford，enlarging its already famous collection of drawings and pictures of English country houses and churchesIt is hard to imagine anything less alarming than collecting pictures of houses and churches，but Mr Willia
2、ms found that even this peaceful work had its unexpected dark cornersHe bought many pictures for the museum from the London shop of Mr JWBritnellTwice a year Mr Britnell sent a list of pictures to all his regular customers，who could then choose which pictures they wanted to look at before deciding w
3、hether to buyIn February 1895 Mr Williams received a list from Mr Britnell with the following letter：Dear Sir，I think you might be interested in Picture Number 978 in our list，which I will be happy to send to you if you wishJWBritnellMr Williams turned to Number 978 in the list and found the followi
4、ng note：Number 978Artist unknownPicture of an English country house，early nineteenth century25 centimetres by 40 centimetres20It did not sound very interesting and the price seemed high However，Mr Williams added it to the pictures that he asked Mr Britnell to send to himThe pictures arrived at the m
5、useum one Saturday afternoon， just after Mr Williams had leftThey were brought round to his rooms in college so that he could look at them over the weekendMr Williams found them on his table when he and his friend，Mr Binks，came in to have teaPicture Number978 showed the front of quite a large countr
6、y houseIt had three rows of windows with the door in the middle of the bottom rowThere were trees on both sides of the house and a large lawn in front of itThe letters AWF were written in the corner of the pictureMr Williams thought that it was not very well done，probably the work of an amateur arti
7、st，and he could not understand why Mr Britnell thought it was worth twenty poundsHe turned it over and saw that there was a piece of paper on the back with part of a name on itAll he could read were the ends of two lines of Writing The first said，ngly Hall；the second，ssexMr Williams thought that it
8、would be interesting to see if he could find the name of the house in one of his guidebooks be fore sending the picture back on Monday morning Meanwhile，he put the picture on the table，lit the lamp because it was now getting dark，and made the teaWhile they were having tea，his friend picked up the pi
9、cture，looked at it and said，Wheres this house， Williams？Thats just what I was going to find out，said Williams， taking a book from the shelfIf you look at the back，youll see its Something Hall in either Essex or SussexHalf the names missing，you seeI dont suppose you recognize the house，do you？No，I do
10、nt，said Mr BinksIts from Britnell，I suppose，isnt it？Is it for the museum？Well，I would buy it if the price was two pounds，replied Mr Williams，but for some reason he wants twenty pounds for itI cant think whyIts not a very good picture and there arent even any figures in it to make it more interesting
11、I agree its not worth twenty pounds，said Binks，but I dont think its too badThe light seems rather good to me and I think there is a figure here，just at the edge，in the frontLet me see，said WilliamsWell，its true the light is quite well doneWheres the figure？Oh，yes！Just the head， in the very front of
12、the pictureAnd indeed there wasright on the edge of the picture just the head of a man or a woman，who was looking towards the houseWilliams had not noticed it beforeStill，he said，though its better than I thought at first， I cant spend twenty pounds of the museums money on a picture of a house I dont
13、 even knowMr Binks，who had some work to finish，soon left and Mr Williams spent the time before dinner trying to find the name of the house in his guidebooksIf I knew the letter before the“ngly”，he said to himself，it would be easy enoughBut there are many more names ending in“ngly”than I thoughtDinne
14、r in Mr Williamscollege was at seven oclock and afterwards a few of his friends came back to his rooms to play cardsDuring a pause in the game Mr Williams picked up the picture from the table without looking at it and passed it to a man named Garwood，who was interested in picturesGarwood looked at i
15、t and said：This is really a very fine picture，you know，Williams The light is very well done，in my opinion，and though the figure is rather unpleasant，it is quite interestingYes，isnt it？said Williams，who was too busy giving drinks to his guests to look at the picture againWhen his visitors had gone，Williams had to finish writing a letter，so it was after midnight before he was ready to go to bedThe picture lay face upwards on the table where Garwood had left it and，as Williams was putting out the lamp，he saw itFor a moment he was too surprised to move，then he s
