England -- Juvenile fiction; Guardian and ward -- Juvenile fiction
Inna now had two new thoughts to ponder over. "Remember, there is no
last remedy with a wise unfailing Providence;" "Oscar in God's good
keeping." They came to her with thrilling freshness one day in the
gallery at Owl's Nest, as she wandered from picture to picture, musing
and dreaming.
She was often at the Owl's Nest. Besides going to and fro to lessons,
Madame Giche invited her to stay there for days together; it was good
for her little nieces to have a child companion, and it was good for the
little girl herself, for, as has been said, she moped and grew pale over
Oscar's disappearance. So, although they missed her at the farm, they
were glad to send her there. Jenny Gregory was invited also: quite a
bevy of young people did the four make, wandering through the old house,
not intruding upon its aged mistress, save at stated times and seasons,
but making a pleasant holiday of it; notwithstanding lessons with Miss
Gordon again, and the strumming through of many scales and exercises on
the piano. They never tired of roaming the terraces, where the peacocks
eyed them askance, and spread out their beautiful tails at them as in
proud disdain--those walking flowers of girls, who seemed to vie with
them and their plumage in their pretty bright spring dresses.
Glorious weather had followed Oscar's disappearance. It was May now, and
the other little girls were out in the park, gathering daisies, and
having a romp with Carlo, who would often come self-invited when Inna
was there. But, Inna had stolen away from them, for the rare treat of
being alone in the gallery, to admire and think about the pictures. That
of Madame Giche's son had a strange interest for her, a stranger picture
in a strange house, save for that of his mother keeping it company, like
loving hearts that could not be separated. Those dark, smiling,
beautiful eyes of his thrilled her through; she could not say why they
always made her think of her father and mother; but then, perhaps, it
was because they were strangers in the land of beautiful pictures. At
any rate, the eyes seemed to belong to her, to follow her, as picture
eyes will, with a strange wistfulness; she could but wonder that the
possessor of such beautiful eyes could ever give his mother pain, part
from her in anger, and break her heart. Of this last he never knew; he
sent her a loving message at the end, begging her forgiveness; and she
gave it to him, so far as it can be accorded to the absent and the
dead--but it broke her heart. Then followed her search for his little
son, whom she had never found. If life had no losses, no mistakes, she
wondered where this missing little one was, in that indistinct shadowy
uncertainty where Oscar was. Would either ever be found?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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