the wretched man who took away my Bettina deserted her when he heard of my ruin; and that I shall find the poor lost lamb at the Chalet.  My three dear women and my Dumay!  All four of you have been ever present in my thoughts for the last three years.  You are a rich man, now, Dumay.  Your share, outside of my own fortune, amounts to five hundred and sixty thousand francs, for which I send you herewith a check, which can only be paid to you in person by the Mongenods, who have been duly advised from New York.

A few short months, and I shall see you all again, and all well, I trust.  My dear Dumay, if I write this letter to you it is because I am anxious to keep my fortune a secret for the present.  I therefore leave to you the happiness of preparing my dear angels for my return.  I have had enough of commerce; and I am resolved to leave Havre.  My intention is to buy back the estate of La Bastie, and to entail it, so as to establish an estate yielding at least a hundred thousand francs a year, and then to ask the king to grant that one of my sons-in-law may succeed to my name and title.  You know, my poor Dumay, what a terrible misfortune overtook us through the fatal reputation of a large fortune,—­my daughter’s honor was lost.  I have therefore resolved that the amount of my present fortune shall not be known.  I shall not disembark at Havre, but at Marseilles.  I shall sell my indigo, and negotiate for the purchase of La Bastie through the house of Mongenod in Paris.  I shall put my funds in the Bank of France and return to the Chalet giving out that I have a considerable fortune in merchandise.  My daughters will be supposed to have two or three hundred thousand francs.  To choose which of my sons-in-law is worthy to succeed to my title and estates and to live with us, is now the object of my life; but both of them must be, like you and me, honest, loyal, and firm men, and absolutely honorable.

My dear old fellow, I have never doubted you for a moment.  We have gone through wars and commerce together and now we will undertake agriculture; you shall be my bailiff.  You will like that, will you not?  And so, old friend, I leave it to your discretion to tell what you think best to my wife and daughters; I rely upon your prudence.  In four years great changes may have taken place in their characters.

Adieu, my old Dumay.  Say to my daughters and to my wife that I have never failed to kiss them in my thoughts morning and evening since I left them.  The second check for forty thousand francs herewith enclosed is for my wife and children.

  Till we meet.—­Your colonel and friend,

Charles Mignon.

“Your father is coming,” said Madame Mignon to her daughter.

“What makes you think so, mamma?” asked Modeste.

“Nothing else could make Dumay hurry himself.”

“Victory! victory!” cried the lieutenant as soon as he reached the garden gate.  “Madame, the colonel has not been ill a moment; he is coming back—­coming back on the ‘Mignon,’ a fine ship of his own, which together with its cargo is worth, he tells me, eight or nine hundred thousand francs.  But he requires secrecy from all of us; his heart is still wrung by the misfortunes of our dear departed girl.”