The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 276: what you’re looking at

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

} e ‘ THE STEAM PACKET. O91] got abroad, to his friends to laugh at him for his ridiculous fears, he preferred to condemn that poor old man to an endless imprisonment rather than make him happy by the restoration of his son! |Oh, Pauline—you must hate me for having been connected with such a man !’? | ‘“* Hate you!’ ejaculated Madame Alvimar; “oh! say not that word! Rather let me commiserate your unhappy position. But he of whom you speak is now no more—let his faults be buried with him. I freely forgive him, for my part, for all the anguish he has been the means of producing to me and those who are dear to me.” ‘“¢ Amiable disposition !”’ exclaimed Josephine, pressing her friend’s hand. ‘‘ But let me clear up the next mystery which occurs in your own narrative ;—I allude to that of Mademoiselle Lenormand.”’ ‘The apparition of yourself!” cried Pauline. ‘‘ Can you explain that also ?”’ ) “I can—and most satisfactorily, too,’ answered Josephine, with a smile. ‘‘ You must know that I and Mademoiselle Lenormand have been excellent friends ever since she first appeared in the world as a soothsayer, You will probably remember that on the morning of my departure with my dear lamented father from your hospitable abode at Calais, a gipsy told my fortune over the garden railings ?” ‘I remember the incident well,” said Pauline. ‘She prophesied that you would be queen of France.” ‘‘ And she prophesied truly,” returned Josephine, with solemnity, while she drew herself up to her full height, as if she were already in- vested with regal authority. ‘‘ But to the point. Conceive my astonishment when I found that same gipsy in the service of Made- moiselle Lenormand, but-with a stoop, real or affected—I know not which—that did not allow me immediately to recognise her.” “Oh! a light breaks in upon me!” cried Pauline. ‘““'The day you and your husband called to consult her,” proceeded Josephine, ‘‘ the old hag whispered in her ear who you were; and she had already heard from me the whole tale of the rescue from ship- wreck, and the interchange of the presents. I was with her at the time you and M. Alvimar called; but it was not until after you were gone that I was aware you were the visitors to whom I allowed myself to be shown in the little magic boudoir which Mademoiselle Lenor- mand has had secretly built, with a thick plate-glass in front, in com- munication with her mystic apartment.” ‘‘Then it was no apparition !”’ exclaimed Pauline. “ Oh! how fool- ish, how blind have not I and my husband been ! ” : | Pp 2 *» oe Gomichbooks (E(0)