that
gliding boat. He was a man of genius. There is no doubt he was."

"I should like to show Mrs. Linwood the picture which you found in the
closet of his studio," said Mrs. Brahan. "Do you know, I think there is
a resemblance to herself?"

"So there is," exclaimed Mr. Brahan, as if making a sudden discovery.
"Her face has haunted me since I first beheld her, and I have just
discovered where I have seen its semblance. If you will walk up stairs,
I will show it to you."

Almost mechanically I followed up the winding stairs, so often pressed
by the feet now mouldering side by side beneath the dark coffin lid,
into the room where my now degraded parent gave form and coloring to the
dreams of imagination, or the shadows of memory. The walls were arching,
and lighted from above. Mr. Brahan had converted it into a library, and
it was literally lined with books on every side but one. Suspended on
that, in a massy gilt frame, was a sketch which arrested my gaze, and it
had no power to wander. The head alone was finished,--but such a head! I
recognized at once my mother's features; not as I had seen them faded by
sorrow, but in the soft radiance of love and happiness. They did not
wear the rosy brightness of the miniature I had seen in my father's
hand, which was probably taken immediately after her marriage. This
picture represented her as my imagination pictured her after my birth,
when the tender anxieties of the mother softened and subdued the
splendor of her girlish beauty; those eyes,--those unforgotten eyes,
with their long, curling lashes, and expression of heavenly
sweetness,--how they seemed to bend on me,--the child she had so much
loved! I longed to kneel before it, to appeal to it, by every holy and
endearing epithet,--to reach the cold, unconscious canvas, and cover it
with my kisses and my tears. But I could only gaze and gaze, and the
strong spell that bound me was mistaken for the ecstasy of admiration,
such as genius only can awaken.

"There is a wonderful resemblance," said Mr. Brahan, breaking the
silence. "I shall feel great pride henceforth in saying, I have an
admirable likeness of Mrs. Linwood."

"I ought to feel greatly flattered," I answered with a quick drawn
breath; "it certainly is very lovely."

"It has the loveliest expression I ever saw in woman's countenance,"
observed Mr. Brahan. "Perhaps, after making such a remark, I ought not
to say, that in that chiefly lies its resemblance to yours