and
sudden sympathy. It seems impossible that there should be no reason
for this.

"One word, telegraph me one word. I do not know how to exist until
I hear from you. Will it be the response that I wait for so
impatiently? Can you bring such happiness to my poor daughter and
myself as will cause us to forget our past years of tears and
mourning?

"E. DURRIEN, Honorary Consul-general,

"104 Rue de Varennes, Paris."

To this letter was added one of explanation, that Erik devoured eagerly.
It was also in Mr. 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. I received him into my family--he being the
son of a dear friend--and when he asked for my daughter's hand, I
gave her to him with joy. Shortly after their marriage I was
appointed consul to Riga; and my son-in-law being detained by
business interests in the United States, I was obliged to leave my
daughter. She became a mother, and to her son was given my
Christian name, united to that of his father--Emile Henry Georges.

"Six months afterward my son-in-law was killed by an accident in
the mines. As soon as she could settle up his affairs, my poor
daughter, only twenty years of age, embarked at New York on the
'Cynthia' for Hamburg, to join me by the most direct route.

"On the 7th of October, 1858, the 'Cynthia' was shipwrecked off the
Faroe Islands. The circumstances of the shipwreck were suspicious,
and have never been explained.

"At the moment of the disaster, when the passengers were taking
their places one by one in the boat, my little grandson, seven
months old--whom his mother had tied to a buoy for safety--slipped
or was pushed into the sea, and was carried away by the storm and
disappeared. His mother, crazed by this frightful spectacle, tried
to throw herself into the sea. She was prevented by main force and
placed in a fainting condition in one of the boats, in which were
three other persons, and who had alone escaped from the shipw