Joseph Mallord William Turner Portsmouth

Joseph Mallord William Turner PortsmouthJohn Singer Sargent Lady AgnewLord Frederick Leighton Solitude
would have thought one could carry out a perfectly respectable business, Hilta, without resorting to parlour tricks," said Granny, sitting down and beginning the long and trickyremoving her hatpins.
"It's different in towns," said Hilta. "One has to move with the times."
"I'm "Damn thing's all sparkly," she said, huffing on it and wiping it with her sleeve. Hilta peered over her shoulder.
"That's not sparkle, that means something," she said slowly.
"What?"sure I don't know why. Is the kettle on?" Granny reached across the table and took the velvet cover off Hilta's crystal ball, a sphere of quartz as big as her head. "Never could get the hang of this damn silicon stuff," she said. "A bowl of water with a drop of ink in it was good enough when I was a girl. Let's see, now . . . ." She peered into the dancing heart of the ball, trying to use it to focus her mind on the whereabouts of Esk. A crystal was a tricky thing to use at the best of times, and usually staring into it meant that the one thing the future could be guaranteed to hold was a severe migraine. Granny distrusted them, considering them to smack of wizardry; for two pins, it always seemed to her, the wretched thing would suck your mind out like a whelk from a shell.