[Illustration: THE FUTURE OF FFARINA.]
"But the most singular part of the story," concluded Father Joliet,
"is the letter which Fortnoye, after two or three quarrels, forced
out of young Kranich when the latter had returned to Europe, full of
triumph and debts, to take possession of his aunt for the rest of his
life. Here it is," added the good man, opening a pocket-book. "The
hand-writing is drunken, but the sense is clear as Seltzer-water.
The scholars tell me _in vino veritas est_, but it appears to me that
truth really comes out in the repentance and headache that follow."
[Illustration: HOHENFELS' FAILURE.]
"MY DEAR AUNT" (ran the letter which Charles had seen forced from the
alligator after his unlucky game of dominoes): "You have known me as
the soul of candor. It is this happy quality which compels me to state
(for I am something of a Rousseau) that if I ever playfully accused
your pretty pet Francine of being a flirt, I knew nothing about it.
The best proof is that she absolutely refused to join her expectations
with mine, though I am something of an Adonis. If you believed that
she and the wine-peddler had made a match, I pity your credulity and
ignorance of human nature. I am certain that neither the peddler nor
myself would touch the enterprise until you had shown exactly what you
would (pecuniarily) do. For my part, I have acted throughout on the
most exact and advanced scientific principles.
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