Vogue editorial page: 'The Unexpected' by Kate Chopin
The pattern
This still is filed under Exhibit in the column.
Define
An image is dropped into the column of type so the reader meets picture and argument in one scan.
Mechanism
In-flow exhibit. The figure is not a separate see fig. 2. It starts the paragraph. Eye and mind start together.
Verdict
Long copy must show as well as tell: a product cutaway, a before/after, a map in the story.
Why it works
The measure is doing the work: at roughly thirty characters a line, long Victorian sentences break into four- and five-word fragments, so dense prose reads fast and the reader's eye never has to travel back across a wide line. One decorative entry point - centred small caps, by-line, drop initial - marks the start and nothing else on the page competes with it, so the block stays as an uninterrupted field of grey. The generous outer margin of the mounting leaf then frames that grey field, which is why the annotated version reads better than the original page did.
Steal this when
You are running long prose that must feel effortless. Take the measure narrower than instinct says, put one ornamental entry point at the top, and then change nothing else for the rest of the piece.