Vashti's Fate — page 83: what you’re looking at

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

a 2 . ‘<- . : Ps ao) Sp the . ry : ‘a oe 78 SEED SOWN IN GOOD GROUND. Miss Gresham was no better, and in consideration of this, Mrs. Everleigh’s illness, and the presence of a visitor, Miss Dale postponed reopening school for a while. Leon felt justified in prolonging his visit beyond the pre- scribed three days, under the circumstances, and his society proved of unspeakable value to Nora. The child had been, as it were, running to waste for lack of a genial companion. The rainy weather continued for three weeks with slight intermissions. Leon, Nora, and sométimes, but not al- ways, Frank, went on exploring expeditions from one end to the other of the habitable portion of the house, looking at rooms rarely used nowadays, quaintly furnished and quaintly decorated with stores of old-time gear that might have, and probably did, come over with that Lord Ever- leigh who had built the house. | In the attic, in turning over some of the hereditary spoils, they came upon a picture, with its face to the wall. “Tt is Vashti’s!” exclaimed Nora; ‘‘it was painted a year or two ago; but Vashti can’t endure the sight of it; she says it looks more like a ghost than her, and she must have hid it up here. She looks very much like papa; don’t you think so?” said Nora, turning it toward the light. It was a very beautiful picture, but there was the same unfathomably sad look in the dusky eyes that characteriaed Roscoe Everleigh’s picture down stairs. ‘‘Yes,”’ Nora said, replying to his glance, for he had not spoken. ‘‘Isn’t it strange that they should have that look? Papa never liked his picture either, and always, till after he died, it hung with its face to the wall. After papa died, Aunt Margery had the picture hung in the dining-room first, and then she removed it to our sitting-room, because, she said, wherever we were most there it ought to be, and she bade us study it. I loved papa dearly, but when I spre Sty Pe arta sais ae es abate ad si See - ” “ + ee —_——? a. aa