Part 1 (2/2)

”Yes Monsieur may be sure that either I or another will observe

Since the unfortunate war in Aation are watched”

”And generally every one else,” I said ”Perhaps you, too, are observed”

”Possibly Monsieur may perceive that it is better I continue in the pay of the police It is hardly more than a _pourboire_, but it is desirable I have an old ard to the existence of the mother--but it was true, as I learned later

”It seems to me,” I said, ”that you will have to report your observations”

”Yes; I cannot avoid that Monsieur may feel assured that I shall communicate very irinned,--”in fact, whatever monsieur pleases If I follow and report at times to the police where monsieur visits, I may be trusted to be at need entirely untrustworthy and prudent I do not sars are safe If ht--aiety, his intelligence, and his audacious frankness tookin my life, my man, which is not free for all to know I shall soon learn whether or not I may trust you If you are faithful you shall be rewarded That is all” As I spoke his pleasant face becarave

”Monsieur shall not be disappointed” Nor was he Alphonse proved to be a devoted servant, a man with those respectful familiarities which are rare except in French and Italian domestics When once I asked him how far his superiors had profited by his account of me, he put on a queer, wry face and said circuhly commended It seemed as well to inquire no further

II

On the 6th of October I found on my table a letter of introduction and the card of Captain Arthur Merton, USA (2d Infantry), 12 Rue du Roi de Rome

The note was simple but positive My uncle, Harry Wellwood, a cynical, pessimistic old bachelor and a rank Copperhead, wrote me to make the captain welcome, whiche Alphonse laid the letters on ered I said, ”Well, what is it?”

”Monsieur may not observe that three letters from America have been opened in the post-office”

I said, ”Yes” In fact, it was co One of these letters was froave Arthur Merton an open letter to you, but I add this to state that he is one of the few decent gentlemen in the army of the North

He inherited his father's share in the mine of which I am part owner, and has therefore no need to serve an evil cause He was born in New Orleans of Northern parents, spent two years in the School of Mines in Paris, and until this wretched war broke out has lived for so camps and in the ruffian life of the far West It is a fair chance which side turns up, the ways of the salon, the accuracy of the ery of the Rockies You will like hiood sense to acquire the ave him an excuse to ask for leave of absence He has no diplooes abroad s here are not yet quite as bad as I could desire to see them Antietam was unfortunate, but in the end the European States will recognize the South and end the war I shall then reside in Richmond

Yours truly,

_Harry Wellwood_

I hoped that the iovernment profited by s turned out, in freeing Captain Merton from police observation, which at this time rarely failed to keep under notice every Aation two thirds of the following day At five I set out in a coupe having Alphonse on the seat with the coachman He left cards for me at a half-dozen houses, and then I told him to order the driver to leave me at Rue du Roi de Rome, No

12--Captain Merton's address

As I sat in the carriage and looked out at the exterior gaiety of the open-air life of Paris, my mind naturally turned in contrast to the war at home and the terrible death harvest of Antietam, news of which had lately reached Europe The sense of isolation in a land of hostile opinion often oppressed me, and rarely was as despotic as on this afternoon I turned for relief to speculative thought of the nu which I drove I wondered how many lived simple and uneventful days, like mine, in the pursuit of inative ingenuity of the novelist could have anticipated, as I rode along amidst the hurries and the leisures of a Parisian afternoon, thatinto the e as any which I could have conceived as possible for any human unit of these numberless men and women

Captain Merton lived so far away fro cards that it was close to dusk when I got out of the carriage at the hotel I sought

I inning to fall heavily, I told Alphonse to keep the carriage The captain was not at hoard to the address, and as I hurried to reenter my coupe I put it in my card-case for future reference