Her unselfishness had a great effect upon the old artist, whose
admiration for his adopted daughter now knew no bounds. Through her he
was restored to his faith in human nature, and he asked God to forgive
him for ever doubting the existence of virtue.
We cannot follow Louise Gerretz through the next twenty years. Suffice
it to say that during that time Van Zwanenburg passed peacefully away,
and that Paul Rembrandt, whose reputation was now well established, had
married. The lonely sister tried to get on with Paul's wife, but after a
few years she had sadly to seek a home of her own.
At the end of the twenty years Louise one day received the following
curt letter from her miserly brother:
"SISTER,--My wife is dead, my son is travelling, I
am alone.
"PAUL REMBRANDT."
The devoted sister, still intent on making others happy, started at once
to her brother, and until the day of his death she never left him. A
great change had come over Rembrandt. He had become more morose and
bitter than ever. Success had only seemed to harden his heart, until
nothing but the chinking of gold had any effect upon it. He was
immensely wealthy, but a miser. As the years passed the gloom settled
deeper upon his soul, until finally he shut himself up in his dark
studio, and would see no one but Jews and money-brokers.
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