In a short time he had drawn near to the painting of the ancestor whom he so greatly resembled.

When her quick eye noted the speck on the face, indicative of inherited traits strongly pronounced, a new and romantic feeling that the De Stancys had stretched out a tentacle from their genealogical tree to seize her by the hand and draw her in to their mass took possession of Paula.

As has been said, the De Stancys were a family on whom the hall-mark of membership was deeply stamped, and by the present light the representative under the portrait and the representative in the portrait seemed beings not far removed.

Paula was continually starting from a reverie and speaking irrelevantly, as if such reflections as those seized hold of her in spite of her natural unconcern.
When candles were brought in Captain De Stancy ardently contrived to make the pictures the theme of conversation.

From the nearest they went to the next, whereupon Paula as hostess took up one of the candlesticks and held it aloft to light up the painting.