The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill

For a moment there was an acute, terrible silence. Mortlake's face was that of a corpse; the face of the dead man at his side was flushed with the hues of life. To the overstrung nerves of the onlookers, the brooding eyes of the picture seemed sad and stern with menace, and charged with the lightnings of doom.

It was a horrible contrast. For Wimp, alone, the painted face had fuller, more tragical meanings. The audience seemed turned to stone. They sat or stood -- in every variety of attitude -- frozen, rigid. Arthur Constant's picture dominated the scene, the only living thing in a hall of the dead.