A Silver Brand — page 210: what you’re looking at

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

909 4 SILVER BRAND. and bewildered, without anything to hold by either in the past or present. The longer he dwelt upon certain mys- terious ways and looks that came up vividly now from out the experience of his boyish days the more positive did his suspicions grow. And his impetuous young spirit chafed restlessly at the barriers that surrounded him, and at the broad distance of land and sea that separated him from those who could, who must, he assured himself, answer his questions truthfully. Wonderful, indeed, seemed the chance which had brought him to this place, a Providence rather than a chance, he believed it. He understood well enough now that it was because of his similarity to his brother, in — height and look, that Roderich had selected him out of the limited number of Americans bound homeward, and yet it was none the less a Providence that he, Aubrey, shouid have been lingering in Germany atall. He recalled again ,the enthusiastic admiration, the proud appreciation which . chad stirred.his heart with such unusual emotion when he first approached Schwarzenberg. Had it really been but the natural response of a Heaven implanted instinct? Had he aright here in these grand old walls? Were the an- cestral honors a part of his rightful heritage? A restless longing came over him to visit again the gal- lery where the dead and gone ancestors of the stately house lived stillin pictured semblance. He had thrown himself upon the couch without removing his clothes. He rose softly, turned the key of his door, and opened it noise- ~lessly, looking out into the broad corridor which was dimly lighted by the starbeams shining through the great arched window at the end, with a vague impression of awe and hope. There was no harm surely in his walking’ softly to try the gallery door. No one was ever there in the day time, much more could he be sure of its solitude at this dead hour of midnight. He returned, took in his hand the coil of wax taper lying on the table, and set forth ~ upon the venture. The weird, grotesque shadows from the quaint carvings mottled the floor with uncanny figures, but they gave no echo to his careful steps. Once a trailing banner, falling from the spear of a sculp- tured knight who guarded an arched opening in the wall, touched his shoulder lightly, and made him start nerv- ously. : The silken fragment had gone forth in a century past, proudly-and triumphantly to battle. The dust of silent (E(o) m (¢ 900 cS (ele)