“I had the remains of my dear parents deposited in one tomb, and placed over it the simplest and whitest of the monuments that had been accumulated in our home, cutting upon it, with my own hands, the beloved names, with no other epitaph. You may well suppose that I felt a horror of formulas and emblems. When I returned to our home, I was notified that it belonged not to me, but the creditors. This I knew very well, and, indeed, I was so entirely ready to depart from it, that I had mechanically packed up my own property, while the women were wrapping the body in the winding-sheet. I left the business of settlement in the hands of the family, for I had been orderly enough, in the midst of my carelessness, to know that though nothing should be left for me, no debts would be left unpaid.
“I was about leaving my home, when the little Jew of whom I spoke came in. I supposed he came to get a cheap bargain of some of M. Goffredi’s precious antiques, which were to be sold at auction; but if he had any such purpose, he had delicacy enough not to mention it to me, and, as I sought to avoid him, he followed me into the garden where I was gathering a few flowers—the only material souvenirs which I proposed to carry away with me. He put into my hands a well-filled purse, and would have retreated without any explanation.
“I had so little thought of any relations other than those whom I had just lost, that I concluded this was an alms which the Jew had been employed to bring me; I flung the purse away upon the ground, in order to make him return and pick it up. He did so, and said:
“‘This is yours—it really is. It is money which I owed Goffredi, and I wish to repay it to you.’
“I refused, for this might be just the amount necessary to enable the estate to meet all the claims against it. Then the Jew said:
“‘The money comes from your real parents. They deposited it with me, and I engaged to deliver it to you whenever you should need it.’
“‘I need none of it,’ I replied, ‘I have enough to carry me to Rome, where M. Goffredi’s friends will find me some employment. Make my parents easy about me. I presume they are not rich, since they have been unable to bring me up under their own eyes. Thank them for having remembered me, and say to them that, at my age, and with the education I have received, it is my duty to be of assistance to them, if they should need it. Whether they reveal themselves to me or not, I will do this with pleasure. They intrusted me to such good hands, and I have been so happy in consequence, that I owe them the liveliest gratitude.’
“Those were my real sentiments, Monsieur Goefle. I was not dissembling at all, for they are my sentiments still. I have never felt any inclination to accuse or question the motives of those who gave me life, and I do not understand the feelings of illegitimate children who complain of not having been born into such or such a condition of society as they would have chosen—as if every living being had not been from all eternity destined to live, and as if it were not God who calls us, or sends us, into this world, under such conditions as it pleases Him to establish.
“‘Your parents are no longer living!’ replied the little Jew; ‘pray for them, and accept this gift from a friend!’
“This being a third account, different from the two preceding, I felt a secret distrust.