His mind
was as a wheel, embracing grief within grief, multiplied
to infinitude; and the wider and more diffusive the
circle, the less powerful was the concentration of
sickening heart and brain on that which was the more
immediate axis of the whole.
Reminded, for the first time, as he pursued his measured
but aimless walk, by the fatal portrait which he more
than once pressed with feverish energy to his lips, of
the singular discovery he had made that night in the
apartments of his father, he was naturally led, by a
chain of consecutive thought, into a review of the whole
of the extraordinary scene. The fact of the existence of
a second likeness of his mother was one that did not now
fail to reawaken all the unqualified surprise he had
experienced at the first discovery. So far from having
ever heard his father make the slightest allusion to this
memorial of his departed mother, he perfectly recollected
his repeatedly recommending to Clara the safe custody of
a treasure, which, if lost, could never be replaced. What
could be the motive for this mystery?--and why had he
sought to impress him with the belief it was the identical
portrait worn by his sister which had so unintentionally
been exposed to his view? Why, too, had he evinced so
much anxiety to remove from his mind all unfavourable
impressions in regard to his mother? Why have been so
energetic in his caution not to suffer a taint of impurity
to attach to her memory? Why should he have supposed the
possibility of such impression, unless there had been
sufficient cause for it? In what, moreover, originated
his triumphant expression of feature, when, on that
occasion, he reminded him that HIS name was not Reginald?
Who, then, was this Reginald? Then came the recollection
of what had been repeated to him of the parting scene
between Halloway and his wife.
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