Page:Pierre.djvu/123

Rh 'And a very strange one it is,' said Pierre—'and so interesting, I shall never forget it, aunt.'

'I hope you never will, my child. Now ring the bell, and we will have a little fruit-cake, and I will take a glass of wine, Pierre;—do you hear, my child?—the bell—ring it. Why, what do you do standing there, Pierre?'

'Why didn't papa want to have cousin Ralph paint his picture, aunt?'

'How these children's minds do run?' exclaimed old aunt Dorothea, staring at little Pierre in amazement—'That indeed is more than I can tell you, little Pierre. But cousin Ralph had a foolish fancy about it. He used to tell me, that being in your father's room some few days after the last scene I described, he noticed there a very wonderful work on Physiognomy, as they call it, in which the strangest and shadowiest rules were laid down for detecting people's innermost secrets by studying their faces. And so, foolish cousin Ralph always flattered himself, that the reason your father did not want his portrait taken was, because he was secretly in love with the French young lady, and did not want his secret published in a portrait; since the wonderful work on Physiognomy had, as it were, indirectly warned him against running that risk. But cousin Ralph being such a retired and solitary sort of a youth, he always had such curious whimsies about things. For my part, I don't believe your father ever had any such ridiculous ideas on the subject. To be sure, I myself cannot tell you why he did not want his picture taken; but when you get to be as old as I am, little Pierre, you will find that everyone, even the best of us, at times, is apt to act very queerly and unaccountably; indeed, some things we do, we cannot entirely explain the reason of, even to ourselves, little Pierre. But you will know all about these strange matters by and by.'