“Ma chere mere, I would not make you unhappy.  I will try not to give you pain.  Please go on and tell me all”.

“Eh! bien! ma chere, my uncle was pleased to see me becoming more peaceful.  Finding I was not attracted by the pleasures of the gay city, he proposed our return to the chateau, and begged the Countess de Morny to accompany us.  At my urgent request, she consented.

“On the day of our arrival, the Countess weary with the journey, having gone to her own apartments, I went to stroll in the beautiful, beloved park.  It was June,—­that month so full of leaves, flowers, birds, and balmy summer winds.  I sat at the foot of an old beech-tree, leaning my head against its huge trunk, listening to the flow of the river, indulging in dangerous reverie,—­dangerous certainly to my peace of mind.  Suddenly, I was startled by the sound of footsteps.  Before I could collect my scattered senses, your father stood before me. ‘Marie,’ he said, ‘Marie.’

“For one moment, I met his earnest, questioning gaze, and then rushed into his open arms.  In short, he had come back from India, not a rich man, but with a competence, and when he found I had not forgotten him, but had clung to him still, through those weary years of absence, he resolved to see the Count de Rossillon and renew the request he had made four years previous.

“My uncle, though much surprised at his sudden appearance, received him politely, if not cordially.  When your father had laid before him a simple statement of our case, he replied frankly.”

“I am convinced”, he said, “by what I have observed during your absence, M. Dubois, that the arrangement you propose, is the only one, which will secure Marie’s happiness.  I will say, however, honestly, that it is far enough from what I designed for her.  But the manliness and honorable feeling you have manifested in the affair, make me more willing to resign her to you than I should otherwise have been, as I cannot but hope that, although deprived of the advantages of wealth and station, she will yet have the faithful affection of a true and noble heart”.  This was enough for us both and more than we expected”.

“But a new difficulty arose.  Upon observing the troubled and uncertain state of affairs in France, your father became convinced that his chances to secure the ends he had in view, would be greater in the new world.  After a brief period of deliberation, he fixed upon a plan of going to British America, and purchasing there a large tract of land, thus founding an estate, the value of which he anticipated would increase with the growth of the country”.

“To this arrangement, the Count was strenuously opposed.  There was a pretty embowered residence, a short distance from the chateau, on the portion of the estate I had inherited from my father.  There he wished us to live.  In short, he wished to retain us near himself.  But your father, with the enterprise and enthusiasm of youth, persisted in his purpose.  At last, my uncle gave a reluctant consent and purchased my share of the estate of Rossillon”.