The Argosy — page 337: what you’re looking at

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

318 A Freak of Fortune. The family is not extinct, for one member of it to my knowledge still exists.” “Eh!” ejaculated the notary, pushing back his chair in extreme amazement. ‘What do you mean P?” ‘“M. Chaumontel was my mother’s uncle,” replied Maurice simply. “Her father and he had quarrelled on account of her marriage, and since then no intercourse had taken place between them, and we knew not whether he was alive or dead.” | “Can you prove the relationship?” asked Maitre Guérizot after a moment’s pause. “Undoubtedly,” answered the young man. ‘The papers con- cerning my family and myself are in my possession.” “Bring them to me,” said the notary. ‘‘When I have examined them, I will write to Maitre Lhuillier stating your claims to the succession ; and if they are admitted, as in the absence of any nearer relative they probably will be, the state will be the poorer by some two hundred thousand francs. Is not that the amount of your great uncle’s property.” ‘““T scarcely looked at the sum, monsieur,” replied Maurice. ‘I was so thunderstruck with the news that I could hardly believe my eyes.” “Well,” said Maitre Guérizot, “‘they seem to have done you good service at any rate; so let me have the papers at once. And perhaps, all circumstances considered,” he added, with a significant smile, “it would be as well, in the interest of my clients, to relieve you from your duties in the office until we hear from Gisors.” We need not dwell on the hopes and fears which agitated the little community assembled that evening in the Rue Soufflot, nor on the correspondence which subsequently ensued between the two notaries on the subject of our hero’s claims. Suffice it to say that no other candidate presenting himself, and the relatiogship having been satisfactorily proved, he was in the course of a few weeks put in possession of his inheritance, the total amount of which, including the proceeds of the sale of his late relative’s house and furniture at Gisors, exceeded two hundred and forty thousand francs, which were advantageously invested for him on mortgage by Maitre Guérizot. His marriage with Louise being necessarily retarded owing to the recent death of their parents, he applied himself seriously to the prosecution of his legal studies, after exchanging his comfortless quarters in the Rue Visconti—much to the regret of Madame Mourier, who had always been .proud of her handsome locataire—for a pleasanter lodging overlooking the garden of the Luxembourg. Every evening he was at his accustomed post near the Pont des Arts, awaiting the arrival of his betrothed, who, independent young lady as she was, had steadily refused to discontinue her daily duties in the Rue de Riveli as long as her pupil remained in Paris, On one ef EORNIELOOOKS EO