She couldn't read or write, and she didn't want to, but she used to come down and watch me paint, and the skipper didn't like it, because he was paying her passage and had to be on the bridge occasionally.' 'I see.

That must have been cheerful.' 'It was the best time I ever had.

To begin with, we didn't know whether we should go up or go down any minute when there was a sea on; and when it was calm it was paradise; and the woman used to mix the paints and talk broken English, and the skipper used to steal down every few minutes to the lower deck, because he said he was afraid of fire.
So, you see, we could never tell when we might be caught, and I had a splendid notion to work out in only three keys of colour.' 'What was the notion ?' 'Two lines in Poe-- Neither the angles in Heaven above nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
It came out of the sea--all by itself.

I drew that fight, fought out in green water over the naked, choking soul, and the woman served as the model for the devils and the angels both--sea-devils and sea-angels, and the soul half drowned between them.

It doesn't sound much, but when there was a good light on the lower deck it looked very fine and creepy.
It was seven by fourteen feet, all done in shifting light for shifting light.' 'Did the woman inspire you much ?' said Torpenhow.
'She and the sea between them--immensely.