Alfred de Rosann — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

ALFRED DE ROSANN. 13 CHAPTER II. THE MYSTERIOUS PAPERS. ARRIVED at St. Malo, De Rosann and Belle-Rose bent their steps towards an inn of second-rate repute —it not being more usual in France than it is in Eng- land for foot-passengers to seek the principal hotels. The landlord was a civil and obliging man, and wil- lingly charged himself with the task of obtaining the necessary signatures to his guests’ passports at the town- hall. De Rosann then despatched a commissionnaire or porter to procure cash for his bills on the merchant’s house which Mr. Clayton had indicated ; while Belle- Rose indulged in the refreshing luxury of a bath, where he amused himself with a bowl of rich soup called consommee.* The reader may readily suppose that Alfred was dying with curiosity once more to examine the mysterious papers of which he had lately become possessed in so miraculous a manner ; and the longer he was deprived of a proper opportunity, the greater became his impatience to investigate their contents— a proceeding to which he had entirely reconciled his conscience, by means of the following arguments. “Tf”? said he to himself, “I preserve these docu- ments untouched till I have an opportunity of ad- vertising them “in the public journals, or of making inquiries in the metropolis and principal towns of France, relative to the existence of an heir to the name and estates of the late Marquis of Denneville, I may keep them for years in my possession, and then eventually have done no good. If I read them, they may probably furnish me with some clue to discover whether there be a living scion of the ancient family, + A common custom in France. VOL. II.—2 CORNICLOOOLK< (F@)