d me with a ponderous gravity befitting the occasion.

Though extremely courteous in their old-fashioned way, they neither wasted
words nor asked unnecessary questions. But they made me a momentous
proposal--no less than to become their partner. They had an ample capital
for their original trade of diamond merchants; but having recently become
contractors for government loans, they had opportunities of turning my
fortune to much better account than investing it in ordinary securities.
Goldberg & Company did not make it a condition that I should take an
active part in the business--that would be just as I pleased. After being
fully enlightened as to the nature of their transactions, and looking at
their latest balance-sheets, I closed with the offer, and I have never had
occasion to regret my decision. We opened branch houses in London and
Paris; the firm is now one of the largest of its kind in Europe; we reckon
our capital by millions, and, as I have lived long, and had no children to
provide for, the amount standing to my credit exceeds that of all the
other partners put together, and yields me a princely income.

But I could not settle down to the monotonous career of a merchant, and
though I have always taken an interest in the business of the house, and
on several important occasions acted as its special agent in the greater
capitals, my life since that time--a period of nearly fifty years--has
been spent mainly in foreign travel and scientific study. I have revisited
South America and recrossed the Andes, ridden on horseback from Vera Cruz
to San Francisco, and from San Francisco to the headwaters of the
Mississippi and the Missouri. I served in the war between Belgium and
Holland, went through the Mexican campaign of 1846, fought with Sam
Houston at the battle of San Jacinto, and was present, as a spectator, at
the fall of Sebastopol and the capture of Delhi. In the course of my
wanderings I have encountered many moving accidents by flood and field.
Once I was captured by Greek brigands, after a desperate fight, in which
both Ramon and myself were wounded, and had to pay four thousand pounds
for my ransom. For the last twenty years, however, I have avoided serious
risks, done no avoidable fighting, and travelled only in beaten tracks;
and, unless I am killed by one of the Griscelli, I dare say I shall live
twenty years longer.

While studying therapeutics and pathology under Professor Giessler, of
Zurich, shortl