"Just a couple of minutes , ' he said, " I'm tidying up something."
A trace of amusement passed her face and she shifted slightly to wait. He looked up just as the wisp of amusement was there and it was imprinted on his unconscious memory. Unknowingly he painted it in.
He much later showed the portrait to the Eminence. "Very average painting" ,the Eminence observed. "but there is something intriguing about the face."
Then he made a much fuller comment about the portrait and observed that the enigmatic smile was significant, as it reflected a depth of both sorrow and joy; that life and death, goodness and sin were omnipresent as a part of the human condition. Centuries later, the enigma of the smile continued to confound as gallery travelers marveled at what they were told to see.
So dear Brutus, let us not be airy-fairy
If you hear a chirping in the bush
It's probably a sparrow and not a canary.
The law of unintended consequence!