José — page 135: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

128 | JOSE. father’s face; “and I have postponed it until the present, because I hoped you would spare me the necessity. You are aware, Mary,” he continued, folding his hands between his knees; “that I have done all that a father could do for your education. The little patrimony which you inherited from your mother is safely and comfortably invested. I have myself paid all your expenses in the best eastern seminaries, although often embarrassed to know whence to derive the werewithal for my own sub- sistence. I did not hesitate to face the discomforts of the wilderness of California, in order to leave no means untried to re-establish our fortune; and though, as in the case of many others, fortune did not choose to perch upon my banners, it opened the way to a speculation which will ultimately yield a _ tenfold value of all we have lost in the past. I have associated myself with our friend, McGregor, to lay out the surrounding valley as a large mercantile colony, to attract immigration, and make it that for which nature obviously designed it. I have already succeeded, with little difficulty, in organizing a company of eastern capitalists for this purpose, and. in the coming spring we intend to begin operations. I shall enter the syndicate as an equal share-holder in the property; and it is thus I find at my disposal every condition which, as a shrewd business man, enables me to make up for all former losses and sacrifices—that is, as soon as McGregor’s interests and my own are consolidated by a natural tie of affinity, and my rights become the inheritance of my grandchildren. I did not choose to enter posi- tively into the latter clause,” he continued; “until I had introduced McGregor to you, until Your mani- fest interest in him, your readiness to brave the dis- Eomichbooks co