Henry Dunbar: A NovelBraddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth)
General
Henry Dunbar: A Novel
Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth)
Fiction
"Yes, surely; I could not fail to do so. I know my father's face so
well as it is, that I must certainly have some knowledge of it as it
was five-and-thirty years ago, however much he may have altered in the
interval. Pray, Mr. Kerstall, oblige me by letting me see the
pictures."
"I should be very churlish were I to refuse to do so," the painter
answered, good-naturedly. "I will just go and see if my father is able
to receive visitors. He has been a voluntary exile from England for the
last five-and-thirty years, so I fear he will have forgotten the name
of Dunbar; but he may by chance be able to give us some slight
assistance."
Mr. Kerstall left his visitors for about ten minutes, and at the end of
that time he returned to say that his father was quite ready to receive
Sir Philip and Lady Jocelyn.
"I mentioned the name of Dunbar to him," the painter said; "but he
remembers nothing. He has been painting a little this morning, and is
in very high spirits about his work. It pleases him to handle the
brushes, though his hand is terribly shaky, and he can scarcely hold
the palette."
The artist led the way to a large room, comfortably but plainly
furnished, and heated to a pitch of suffocation by a stove. There was a
bed in a curtained alcove at the end of the apartment; an easel stood
near the large window; and the proprietor of the chamber sat in a
cushioned arm-chair close to the suffocating stove.
Michael Kerstall was an old man, who looked even older than he was. He
was a picturesque-looking old man, with long white hair dropping down
over his coat-collar, and a black-velvet skull-cap upon his head. He
was a cheerful old man, and life seemed very pleasant to him; for
Frenchmen have a habit of honouring their fathers and mothers, and Mr.
Frederick Kerstall was a naturalized citizen of the French republic.
The old man nodded and smiled and chuckled as Sir Philip and Laura were
presented to him, and pointed with a courtly grace to the chairs which
his son set for his guests.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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