“Yes. Further, I shall portray Beauty as Miss FitzCameron. With amended teeth, of course.”

Once agreed upon, they needed only to decide the point in the story to represent and the pose for the tableau. With due consideration, they settled upon the moment when Beauty first sees the Beast as the most dramatic.

Mr. Vincent started by creating the illusion of Miss FitzCameron, but held it for only moments. When he released the folds, even after so short a time, his breath was laboured and his hands shaking. Jane questioned him with a look, but he shook his head.

“I need nothing more than to sit for a moment, if I may.”

“Are you certain you are well?”

“Quite.” His teeth bared as he snapped his reply. Jane did not feel the urge to query further after his brusque response. Surely he knew his own limits.

Jane pulled the folds around herself, manipulating them until she was satisfied with the arrangement. The cleverness of her plan lay in that, after her audience became accustomed to the face of the Beast, she was certain that her own countenance would appear less severe by comparison.

At one point, Mrs. Ellsworth said, “Oh, I cannot stay in this room for a minute longer. You are too terrible, Jane. Too, too terrible. Some of the weaker ladies might succumb to fright when they view the monster you have created.”

Jane laughed at her mother’s fears and for a time was able to forget the upset she had experienced earlier.

Mr. Vincent said, “I dream of a day when it is possible to move images from one location to the next without the human effort of clasping tight to keep the folds from unraveling. Were that possible, then a gallery could be created so that arts such as these were not only the provenance of the wealthy, but that all men might be lifted up by exposure to this, the most ephemeral of arts.”

“Is glamour truly the most ephemeral? I would have thought music vied for that place since the notes come into being and are gone as swiftly as they arrive. Each sound exists only in the now, whereas a glamural such as the one you created for Lady FitzCameron will continue on.”

“Perhaps, but it is possible to record a piece of music in a fold of glamour. Where is our system for recording the use of folds and threads of glamour? There are papers and treatises on it, but they are as dull and dry as the description of a painting, doing no more to shew the power of a piece or how to re-create it than saying that Sir Joshua painted a sky blue. Someday, mark my words, it will be possible to create a copy of a glamour, and the explosion of possibilities will drive the art to new heights. I imagine a day when it will be possible to create an image in one place and have it be seen instantly in another.”