It had been an easy matter to
preserve them, and, consequently, the collection was large and curious,
including samples of the wardrobe appertaining to every epoch, from the
swaddling-clothes of the infant to a black gown of the last year.
After the period of youth, however, which Ida represented, the number and
interest of the mementoes rapidly decreased, and for many years had
consisted of nothing more than a few dresses and a collection of
photographs, one or two for each year, arranged in order. They numbered
not less than fifty in all and covered thirty-seven years, from a
daguerreotype of Miss Ludington at the age of twenty-five to a photograph
taken the last month. Between these two pictures there was not enough
resemblance to suggest to a casual observer that they were pictures of
the same individual.
To trace the gradual process of change from year to year during the
intervening period, was an employment which never lost its pensive
fascination for Miss Ludington. For each of these faces, with their so
various expressions, represented a person possessing a peculiar identity
and certain incommunicable qualities--a person a little different from
any one of those who came before or after her, and from any other person
who ever lived on earth.
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