She wrote to him regularly every week, as I said; and about once in two months, on an average, she got a letter from him; but she could not complain for his mother got one no oftener, and both made excuses for him; he had “so much to engage his attention,” they said.
At length, when he had been gone more than two years, the letters ceased, or seemed to cease, altogether. Several months passed, and nothing was heard of Mr. Alexander. His father opined that he had passed over into Africa, where post-offices were few, and mails doubtful, and hoped that he would soon return into a more civilized section of the world, from which he would write to his relations.
Old Mrs. Lyon grieved and complained. She was sure that he had been killed by the Arabs of the Desert, or sold into slavery by the Algerine pirates.
Drusilla pined in silence, or if she opened her mouth to speak upon the subject, it was to try to encourage her old friend, and herself also. She told Mrs. Lyon that Bedouin outrages and Barbary piracies were horrors belonging to the past. She showed her the modern map of Africa, and pointed out how few and far apart were the points from which letters could be sent home, and she sought to demonstrate that the absence of post-offices and mail routes was the all-sufficient cause of the silence of the traveller in Africa. Thus she succeeded in cheering the old lady; and whenever Mrs. Lyon felt more discouraged than usual, she always sought Drusilla to be comforted by her.
General Lyon thought as the judge thought, that Alexander being in Africa could not write home; and he wished as the judge did, that the wanderer might soon return to Europe, civilization, and post-offices.
Miss Anna never troubled her head about the matter. She was his promised wife, and so his mother hoped that he might write to her, if to no one else. And Mrs. Lyon often wrote to Anna, to ask if she had heard from Alick yet. And Anna always answered—“I have not had a letter from him for ages. He has forgotten me.” And Anna’s “wish was father to this thought.” And furthermore, she advised her correspondent not to be uneasy. Alick, she thought, would come back safe in time, no doubt.
People who are not anxious can be so rational!
But at length suspense was ended.
It was early in December. The judge and Mrs. Lyon were in their town house, looking forward to the annual Christmas visit of the general and Miss Lyon, when the old lady received a letter from her son. It was dated from Paris, and contained the joyful news that he had returned from Africa in perfect health and spirits, and was going over to Southampton to take the first steamer bound for New York; and that soon after they should get his letter they might expect him in person.
Mrs. Lyon, after reading this letter to her husband, and receiving his comment: