United States or British Indian Ocean Territory ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
On the box which closed it was a medallion upon which the letters "E.D." were engraved, surrounded by the motto "Semper idem." These initials and devices were also stamped in the corner of the letter enclosed in the envelope, which was that from Mr. Durrien. The letter read as follows: "My dear child, Let me call you this in any case.
Durrien, the Honorary Consul-general, and member of the Geographical Society, with these words written in pencil: "A good voyage a speedy return." We can not explain Erik's feelings. This attention from an amiable and distinguished savant brought tears to his eyes. In leaving this hospitable shore where he had remained three days, it seemed to him as if he was leaving his own country.
Durrien had never definitely renounced the idea that her son was living. She had never seen him dead before her eyes, and she clung mother-like to the hope that he was not altogether lost to her. She said that the proofs were insufficient, and she nourished the possibility of his sudden return. She might be said to pass her days waiting for him.
Durrien's handwriting, and read as follows: "I was the French consul at New Orleans when my only daughter, Catherine, married a young Frenchman, Mr. George Durrien, a distant connection, and, like ourselves, of Breton origin. Mr. George Durrien was a mining engineer. He had come to the United States to explore the recently discovered mines of petroleum and intended to remain several years.
He gained his case in the first instance, and also on appeal, which was no small success. Erik took advantage of this, and of the enormous fortune thus accruing to him, to purchase the "Alaska," which he converted into a pleasure yacht. He uses it every year to go to Noroe in company with Mme. Durrien and Vanda, to visit his adopted family.
Durrien found among his papers elucidated many of these perplexing questions. "Several months before his marriage," he said to Erik's friends, "my son-in-law had discovered, near Harrisburg, a petroleum well. He lacked the capital necessary to purchase it, and he saw that he was in danger of losing all the advantages which the possession of it would secure to him.
"N.B. The last article is on account of the different nationalities of the two partners, and because of the complications that could not fail to arise in case of the death of either of them without issue." "Such," continued Mr. Durrien, "was the contract which my future son-in-law had signed at the time, when he had no thought of marrying, and when everybody, except, perhaps, Mr.
Durrien had posted his letter, he had the joy of waiting for his grandson at the depot. As soon as the train stopped they fell into each other's arms. They had thought so much about each other during these last few days that they both felt already well acquainted. "My mother?" asked Erik. "I have not dared to tell her, much as I was tempted to do so!" answered Mr. Durrien.
Without waiting for his baggage, they departed in the coup that Mr. Durrien had brought. Mme. Durrien, alone in the parlor in Varennes Street, awaited impatiently the return of her father. She had had her suspicions aroused, and was only waiting until the dinner hour arrived to ask for an explanation.
Durrien, rising and walking into the adjoining room. As if by accident, he carried the paper with him. If his daughter could have read his thoughts, she would have known that amidst the tumults of hopes and fears that so agitated him was also a determination not to let her eyes rest upon that paper.