Introduction

Missus van der luyden's portrait by huntington, in black velvet and venetian point, faced that of her lovely ancestress. Although 20 years had elapsed since its execution, it was still a perfect likeness. She always struck newland archer as having been rather gruesomely preserved in the airless atmosphere of a perfectly irreproachable existence. In death, like all his family, he esteemed and admired missus van Der Luyden. But he found her gentle bending sweetness less approachable than the grimness of some of his mother's old aunts.