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"But what is the matter? Of course I won't look at it if you

don't want me to," he said, rather coldly, turning on his heel

and going over towards the window. "But, really, it seems rather

absurd that I shouldn't see my own work, especially as I am going

to exhibit it in Paris in the autumn. I shall probably have to

give it another coat of varnish before that, so I must see it

some day, and why not to-day?"

"To exhibit it! You want to exhibit it?" exclaimed Dorian Gray, a

strange sense of terror creeping over him. Was the world going to

be shown his secret? Were people to gape at the mystery of his

life? That was impossible. Something-he did not know what-had to

be done at once.