The girl bade fair to become as lovely as her mother; the boy was a
magnificent fellow, with waving locks, thrown back from a noble brow,
and such an air of pride and candour in the carriage of the head and the
flash of the eyes as would have filled a parent's heart with pride to
behold. Nan's eyes passed by the other two portraits to dwell on this
with wondering admiration; and something in the appearance of the
beautiful young lad seemed strangely familiar. Family likeness is a
marvellous thing, revealing itself in the most unexpected fashions; and
though at first sight no two people could have been more unlike than
this incarnation of youth and strength, and the bleached and weary
invalid in the next room, it was certainly of Mr Vanburgh, and no
other, that Nan was reminded at this moment. The shape of the eyes was
the same, the curve of the lips, the growth of the hair on the forehead.
She looked back at the first picture, and gave a start of recognition.
She had not realised it at first, but yes! that handsome, happy, self-
confident face had once belonged to Mr Vanburgh himself; it was his own
portrait at which she looked. Nan wheeled round to the servant with an
agitated question:
"It is himself! But why is he here? They are dead, these others, but
he--"
"He also is dead, signorina," the man replied, and bent his head as if
in obeisance before the picture. "He died with those he loved.
Something lived on, perhaps, but not my master. He lies buried with
them--his wife--his son--his daughter. All that he had. Ah, what a
tragedy! One day all happiness and love; the next it is done, it is
over, his heart is broken! We were out yachting together, and my master
and I have gone on shore on business--to make purchases, to buy
provisions. We should join them again next day; and meantime they went
a little cruise to pass the time--an excursion to a bay which the
signora wished to visit. It was all calm when they started, but those
are treacherous seas; a squall sprang up, and they were driven on the
rocks. The gale lasted two days, and at the end pieces of wood were
washed ashore from the wreck. There was nothing else--no, nothing! We
were like madmen both, searching about, and waiting, always waiting,
year after year. ... They might have been picked up, and landed at some
far-away port; they might for a time have lost their minds and been
unable to remember. Such things have been; and why not again? But at
last hope died away, and strength with it. He took no rest, no care for
himself, and so the illness came which ends as you see. Then I took him
away, for the living must come before the dead, and I had my duty to him
to remember. We have wandered over the world, signorina, in search of
health and peace, but they come not with money. Everything else,"--he
waved his hand round the exquisite room, with its paintings, its
carvings, its china, its treasures of ancient art--"everything else, but
not these.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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