My Last Duchess

Will't please you sit and look at her? I said
"Frà Pandolf" by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps
Frà Pandolf chanced to say, "Her mantle laps
Over my lady's wrist too much," or "Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat": such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart – how shall I say? – too soon made glad."

"You should read it again," he'd suggested, "with Amanda in mind. Her portrait on a billboard might just serve her right." He'd finished his martini. "Another round?" he'd asked. "On me."

I'd finished my own. "No, thanks; maybe next time." Thanks to Henry, I had better things to do than to get soused.

Thaddeus is a superb artist, and, when I paid him the $25,000 his portrait of Amanda had cost him, I told the artist as much. Thaddeus had captured her likeness so perfectly that she looked real. She's an undeniably lovely lady, especially as Thaddeus had painted her, emphasizing her perfection in the subtle, flattering manner in which he'd depicted her blonde hair, as if it were a gleaming gold halo; her wide blue eyes, as if they reflected an azure sky; her cheeks, as if they blossomed with the soft blush of a delicate rose; her lips, as if they'd been sucking upon strawberries. Her breasts were not only high, round, full, and firm, but they looked more natural upon the canvas than they did upon Amanda herself. He'd done an excellent job, too, in capturing her concave tummy, the slight flare of her hips, her sleek thighs, her dimpled knees, and her tapering calves. Her sex, like the rest of her charms, was also gloriously detailed and so lifelike that I imagined that I could reach forth my hand and--