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You remember that landscape of mine, for which Agnew offered me

such a huge price but which I would not part with? It is one of

the best things I have ever done. And why is it so? Because,

while I was painting it, Dorian Gray sat beside me. Some subtle

influence passed from him to me, and for the first time in my

life I saw in the plain woodland the wonder I had always looked

for and always missed."

"Basil, this is extraordinary! I must see Dorian Gray."

Hallward got up from the seat and walked up and down the garden.

After some time he came back. "Harry," he said, "Dorian Gray is

to me simply a motive in art. You might see nothing in him. I see

everything in him. He is never more present in my work than when

no image of him is there. He is a suggestion, as I have said, of

a new manner. I find him in the curves of certain lines, in the

loveliness and subtleties of certain colours. That is all."

"Then why won't you exhibit his portrait?" asked Lord Henry.