old, would
she, too, be there? With a sort of uneasiness, I was rapidly making a
calculation of my aunt Bertha's age when I arrived at the post-office.

I did not hesitate, however; with a hand that trembled only a little I
slipped my letter into the box, and the die was cast.

CHAPTER LXXXI.

I will end these reminiscences here, because what follows is not yet
distant enough from me to be submitted to the unknown reader. And
besides it seems to me that my childhood really came to an end upon the
day in which I announced my decision in regard to my future.

I was then fourteen and a half years of age, and that gave me,
therefore, three years and a half in which to prepare myself for the
naval academy, consequently I had time to do it thoroughly and properly.

But in the meantime I had to encounter many refusals and all sorts
of difficulties before my admittance to the Borda. And later I
lived through many troublous years; years replete with struggles and
mistakes,--I had many a Calvary to climb; I had to pay cruelly and in
full for having been reared a sensitive, shy little creature, by force
of will I had to recast and harden my physical as well as my moral
being. One day, when I was about twenty-seven years of age, a circus
director, after having seen my muscles that then had the elasticity
and strength of steel, gave utterance, in his admiration, to the truest
words I have ever had addressed to me: "What a pity, sir," he said,
"that your education commenced so late!"

CHAPTER LXXXII.

My sister and I had expected to visit the mountains again the next
summer.

But Azrael passed our way; terrible and unexpected misfortunes disrupted
our tranquil and happy family life.

And it was not until fifteen years later, after I had been over the
greater part of the earth, that I revisited this corner of France.

All was greatly changed there; my uncle and aunt slept in the graveyard;
my boy cousins had left, and my girl cousin, who already had threads
of silver among her dark locks, was preparing to quit this part of the
country forever, this empty house in which she did not wish to live
alone; and the Titi and the Marciette (whose names were no longer
prefaced by the article) had grown into tall young ladies whom I would
not have recognized.

Between two long voyages, in a hurry as always, my life hastening
feverishly upon its way, in remembrance of bygone days, I made this
pilgrimage to my un