A few
words which your aunt and sister have said to me as to your intentions
lead me to make this frank avowal. If you think it desirable, a letter
from my mother shall recall me, on pretence of her illness, to-morrow
morning before the hunt begins. Without your consent I do not choose
to be present at a fete which I owe to your kindness, and where, if my
secret should escape me, you might feel hurt and defrauded. You will
ask me why I have come here at all. I could not withstand the
invitation. Be generous enough not to reproach me for what was almost
a necessary curiosity. But this is not the chief, not the most
delicate thing I have to say to you. You have firm friends in my
father and myself,--more so than perhaps you realize; and as my
fortune was the first cause that brought you to me, I wish to say--but
without intending to use it as a sedative to calm the grief which
gallantry requires you to testify--that my father has thought over the
affair of the marshes, his friend Dumay thinks your project feasible,
and they have already taken steps to form a company. Gobenheim, Dumay,
and my father have subscribed fifteen hundred thousand francs, and
undertake to get the rest from capitalists, who will feel it in their
interest to take up the matter.
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