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- 3235
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- 2026-01-30T20:48:52.918Z
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- 3189
- text
- III.
In the cold courts of justice the dull head demands oaths, and holy writ
proofs; but in the warm halls of the heart one single, untestified
memory's spark shall suffice to enkindle such a blaze of evidence, that
all the corners of conviction are as suddenly lighted up as a midnight
city by a burning building, which on every side whirls its reddened
brands.
In a locked, round-windowed closet connecting with the chamber of
Pierre, and whither he had always been wont to go, in those sweetly
awful hours, when the spirit crieth to the spirit, Come into solitude
with me, twin-brother; come away: a secret have I; let me whisper it to
thee aside; in this closet, sacred to the Tadmore privacies and repose
of the sometimes solitary Pierre, there hung, by long cords from the
cornice, a small portrait in oil, before which Pierre had many a time
trancedly stood. Had this painting hung in any annual public exhibition,
and in its turn been described in print by the casual glancing critics,
they would probably have described it thus, and truthfully: "An
impromptu portrait of a fine-looking, gay-hearted, youthful gentleman.
He is lightly, and, as it were, airily and but grazingly seated in, or
rather flittingly tenanting an old-fashioned chair of Malacca. One arm
confining his hat and cane is loungingly thrown over the back of the
chair, while the fingers of the other hand play with his gold
watch-seal and key. The free-templed head is sideways turned, with a
peculiarly bright, and care-free, morning expression. He seems as if
just dropped in for a visit upon some familiar acquaintance. Altogether,
the painting is exceedingly clever and cheerful; with a fine, off-handed
expression about it. Undoubtedly a portrait, and no fancy-piece; and, to
hazard a vague conjecture, by an amateur."
So bright, and so cheerful then; so trim, and so young; so singularly
healthful, and handsome; what subtile element could so steep this whole
portrait, that, to the wife of the original, it was namelessly
unpleasant and repelling? The mother of Pierre could never abide this
picture which she had always asserted did signally belie her husband.
Her fond memories of the departed refused to hang one single wreath
around it. It is not he, she would emphatically and almost indignantly
exclaim, when more urgently besought to reveal the cause for so
unreasonable a dissent from the opinion of nearly all the other
connections and relatives of the deceased. But the portrait which she
held to do justice to her husband, correctly to convey his features in
detail, and more especially their truest, and finest, and noblest
combined expression; this portrait was a much larger one, and in the
great drawing-room below occupied the most conspicuous and honorable
place on the wall.
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