"A lovely story," I said to myself. "This cave, now, with the bushes cut
away from the entrance to let the light in, might be such a place as he
would choose, withdrawn from the notice of men, to set up his block of
marble, and mould into a visible body the thought already clothed with
form in the unseen hall of the sculptor's brain. And, indeed, if I
mistake not," I said, starting up, as a sudden ray of light arrived
at that moment through a crevice in the roof, and lighted up a small
portion of the rock, bare of vegetation, "this very rock is marble,
white enough and delicate enough for any statue, even if destined to
become an ideal woman in the arms of the sculptor."
I took my knife and removed the moss from a part of the block on which
I had been lying; when, to my surprise, I found it more like alabaster
than ordinary marble, and soft to the edge of the knife. In fact, it
was alabaster. By an inexplicable, though by no means unusual kind of
impulse, I went on removing the moss from the surface of the stone;
and soon saw that it was polished, or at least smooth, throughout. I
continued my labour; and after clearing a space of about a couple of
square feet, I observed what caused me to prosecute the work with more
interest and care than before. For the ray of sunlight had now reached
the spot I had cleared, and under its lustre the alabaster revealed
its usual slight transparency when polished, except where my knife had
scratched the surface; and I observed that the transparency seemed to
have a definite limit, and to end upon an opaque body like the more
solid, white marble. I was careful to scratch no more. And first, a
vague anticipation gave way to a startling sense of possibility; then,
as I proceeded, one revelation after another produced the entrancing
conviction, that under the crust of alabaster lay a dimly visible form
in marble, but whether of man or woman I could not yet tell. I worked on
as rapidly as the necessary care would permit; and when I had uncovered
the whole mass, and rising from my knees, had retreated a little way,
so that the effect of the whole might fall on me, I saw before me
with sufficient plainness--though at the same time with considerable
indistinctness, arising from the limited amount of light the place
admitted, as well as from the nature of the object itself--a block of
pure alabaster enclosing the form, apparently in marble, of a reposing
woman.