The Price He Paid — page 93: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

84 AT THE BALL. ing-touch to their preparations, had withdrawn to - their posts in the antechambers and hall. Ga- brielle had dressed more quickly than her mother ; that lady was still severely exercising her maid’s patience by perpetually finding some fresh thing in her attire which needed alteration or improvement. So the young baroness, knowing how useless it would be to wait, came on alone to a small saloon, the first of a long suite of rooms only thrown open on the occasion of great ceremonies. A conspicuous ornament of this saloon was a picture inarichly gilt frame, well set off by the dark velvet hangings. It represented the baron’s deceased consort, and was the work of a celebrated artist. Not even the painter’s cunning hand, how- ever, had been able to endow those rather pleasing but insipid and unmeaning features with any special interest; a certain aristocratic dignity of bearing, and anextreme elegance inthe toilet and acces- sories, were all that might for a moment captivate attention. Gabrielle had paused before this picture, and was still considering it, when a door at the farther end of the long suite of rooms, which gave access to the governor’s private apartments, opened, and Raven himself appeared. He was in full dress to- day, in honor of the occasion, and his handsome court-suit with the broad ribbon on his breast lent additional stateliness to his figure, as he walked through the rooms slowly with his accustomed proud and lofty mien. “Why, Gabrielle, dressed already! What are you doing there, wrapt in meditation before that picture?” There was audible dissatisfaction in the tone in which the last words were spoken. Gabrielle did not notice it. She answered: “I was wondering to see my aunt’s portrait here. Could you not find a place for it in your own rooms” “No,” was the short, but decided, reply. _ “But these salons are not opened many times dur- ing the year. Why do you not hang the picture in your study?” Eomichooks.co