Volume III Part 23 (2/2)
shall often want to speak to you, you must come and live in our house, which you must look upon as your own”
”My presence will be a restraint on you I shall be a trouble”
”Ask Esther”
Esther joined her entreaties to her father's and I gave in, taking good care not to let the ratitude, to which they answered that it was I who conferred a favour
M d'O went into his closet, and as soon as I foundthat I should not be happy till I had won her heart
”Do you love me?”
”Dearly, and I will do all in my power to sheell I love you, if you will love ave me her hand, which I covered with kisses, and she went on to say, ”As soon as you coood opportunity for asking my hand of my father You need not be afraid he will refuse you, but the first thing for you to do is to move into our house”
”My dear little wife! I will cos to one another, talked about the future, and told each other our inhts; and I was undoubtedly truly in love, for not a single improper fancy rose in my mind in the presence ofthat M d'O said on his return was, that there would be a piece of news on the Exchange the next day
”What is that, papa dear?”
”I have decided to take the whole risk--a to three hundred thousand florins-of the shi+p which is thought to have gone down They will call me mad, but they themselves will be the madmen; which is what I should be if, after the proof we have had, I doubted the oracle any htened I have told you that I have been often deceived by the oracle”
”That must have been, et at the real sense of it; but in the present case there is no room, for doubt I shall make three million florins, or, if the worst comes to the worse,of the pocket-book had made enthusiastic, told her father to lose no time As for ain overwhel my hand said, ”If the oracle does lie this tilad to hear it,” I answered; ”but as this is a matter of the utmost importance, let me consult the oracle a second time before you risk your three hundred thousand florins” This proposition pleased the father and daughter highly; they could not express their gratitude toso careful of their interests
What folloas truly surprising--enough to make one believe in fatality My readers probably will not believe it; but as these Memoirs will not be published till I have left this world, it would be of no use forof them is only the amusement of my leisure hours Well, let him ill believe it; this is absolutely what happened I wrote down the question ical cerehted to be able to check an act of extreme imprudence, and I was deteret, would abate M d'O----'s courage and annihilate his plans I had thought over what I wanted to say, and I thought I had expressed it properly in the numbers With that idea, as Esther knew the alphabet perfectly well, I let her extract the answer, and transfer it into letters What was my surprise when I heard her read these words:
”In a matter of this kind neither fear nor hesitate Your repentance would be too hard for you to bear”
That was enough Father and daughter ran to ehted a tithe of the profits should beany answer; I had intended to write trust and hazard, and I had written fear and hesitate But thanks to his prejudice, M d'O---- only saw in my silence confirmation of the infallibility of the oracle In short, I could do nothingto the care of chance, who sometimes is kind to us in spite of ourselves
The nextI took up my abode in a splendid suite of rooms in Esther's house, and the day after I took her to a concert, where she joked with rief I should endure on account of the absence of Madahter Esther was the only mistress of my soul
I lived but to adore her, and I should have satisfied ood principles I could not gain possession of her, and was full of longing and desire
Four or five days after my installation in my new quarters, M
d'O---communicated to me the result of a conference which he had had with M Pels and six other bankers on the twenty millions They offered ten millions in hard cash and seveninterest at five or six per cent with a deduction of one per cent
brokerage Furtherive a sum of twelve hundred thousand florins owed by the French India Company to the Dutch Company
With such conditions I could not venture to decide on ht theh, the i taken into consideration I sent copies of the proposal to M de Boulogne and M