Show the vicissitudes of a million at the time of our story there was an auction store near the bourse the viscount robert N de P was 25 years of age had an income of livres wit good looks an illustrious name and could have made a very brilliant marriage ile he ought ta to haye have been the happiest man in the world he had only one regret he had bad nothing to do he was unhappy at his hb happiness the constant tranquility of life fatigued him he needed a little bitter in his cup of perpetual sweets but heaven refused to grant aitto it to him he resolved to fly to other lands there to seek the fatigues sufferings fe rings the novelties he lacked so five years ago he lie entered by chance an auction room just as desi they the were putting up a capital portable writing desk ile he was about to travel and it was just jast what he needed BO so he bought it for francs it probably cost more than ten times limes tf mes that sum in the interior there were compartments for everything and a plate bore the name lord N one of the ho richest peers peera of england he was enchanted with his hia purchase and carried it home in triumph some days after be he set out for spain as he went from madrid to cadiz he was stopped by thieves who completely despoiled edam him the only thing he missed was his desk ile he prayed them to return it they refused but their chief don jose maria marla promised to send it after him to cadigon Ca dizon re receipt e i t cf of a ransom robert promised reals and an S gave the address of the hotel where he meant to stop at cadiz he sent the money and got his desk in america in the wilds wilda of mexico his big desk was carried ot off by the he mexicans he thought it lost four months afterwards be found ic it in a shop in vera vcra cruz and paid francs for it in 1852 having returned to francele Fran cehe thought of going to baden he passed the summer bummer there and went to pans visiting cologne andrix and alz alx alzia la chapelle on bis big way arrived on the frontier which separates france from belgium he be fell into the hands of the custom house officers some days before some skillful fellows fel fei lovra had defrauded the customs to a considerable amount consequently the officers ce were on their guard the search was long and the viscount became furious what do you fear feat he asked angrily oh sir objects of great value can be concealed e d in a small spacer space have I 1 the air of a smuggler no but there are ambassadors who ao smuggle without scruple 20 the search continued and the viscount was astonished to see sea the oali officers cers open drawers jn in his desk of the existence of which he was ignorant at last full of impatience ho he wished to reclaim it now that yon have spen open all said he be iet ilet let 9 not prolong this unpleasant investing invest investigation ig mation matlon what do you oti say sir air 1 6 I 1 say that you have seen soen all and know that I 1 haap ave nothing contraband your coolness sir makes ma me pity yon have you nothing to bring forth if yo you u do so you will be freed by paying the dues if not and I 1 I 1 find any thing there will be confiscation and a fine but you have seen all ap tut put 1 perhaps erhan 9 it is well weli made any one but myself if in liht have been dec dee ivd but I 1 swear to you yon that you have hava saen seen an all wiy deceive mel me I 1 arn am loing going to prove the i 1 contrary tont sont ary 1611 if you find anything else I 1 swear I 1 know nothing of 10 it t d A poor excuse I 1 warn you that I 1 do not sot be lieve youa youl let us finish this bad joke 7 we will and so much the worse for yoal you and with a uail the officer pressed against what was apparently a little ornament which flew back disclosing a drawer in which was a paper parcel the officers took it out looked at it and put it back I this is not a contraband said he with a bow and with so much money I 1 was wrong to I 1 accuse you but the tha viscount was stupefied fied banknotes bank notes cried he but I 1 did not put them there you are very fortunate sir air it if you can forget a million so readily readi lyt in fact there was there a million of pounds sterling th the viscount took the notes counted them replaced them and determined to find the owner arrived at london he be sought out lord N whose name was engraved inside the nobleman affirmed that the money was not his he ile had given this desk to a former valet of his whose address he gave the viscount this valet was now a wealthy shopkeeper in pall mall mali ile he told the viscount that he knew naught of the money but while in italy had sold the desk to count luigi Setti manni who was immensely rich and in whose service he then was the viscount set out for italy and went to ravenna where count Setti manni lived he recognized the desk but avowed that he had bad never placed any money in it he sent the viscount however to the signora laura L a former prima donna of the san carlo at whose house in his gay days he had forgotten his desk the signora laura recognized the desk desh and related that she had given it to the russian princel princes alexis B in exchange for a pearl collar the viscount set out for st petersburg her he was very happy he now had something to doto find the true owner of the hidden money he placed it at interest in order that thit it might nou not run the risk of being lost prince B knew the desk dlesk but declared that ber her had never concealed a single bank note in it ile he told the viscount that on leaving italy he had hall gone to paris and had given the desk to a dan beuse of the opera louise P who was not in thel them habit of concealing money robert returned to paris there he be learne learned cr hat that after a life of gallantry and luxury louise ise lse P died in misery and that her furniture nasr sold by her creditors it was at that site bile that hel had bought the desk what to do now he could only think thick thab that the maker of the desk had placed the money there or that it was decosi deposited ted thereby there by t the h a spanish robbers who stole it the maker at london wrote that he knew nothing ng of it and the viscount learned that the spanish robbers had all been hung long since 0 ahi ah perhaps it was deposited in the desk by th the a mexicans Alexi cans ile he went to mexico whence he returned two months ago ile he them there disc dise discovered that oie of those into whose bands hands it had bad fallen was as a trapper who carried on a considerable trade in skins with the americans ame cans caus this was sufficient he must have beeche been the she man who concealed the bank notes the viscount continued his search and at last found one ona day at vera cruz a very pretty girl of 17 the daughter of a aiex Alex mexican ican by a french woman who had come to vera cruz as a milliner in answer to this question she told him that she knew nothing of her father bilt but that he had been killed by a texan ranger I 1 she was extremely pretty and like a sensible fellow he married her and having at last some thing to do returned to paris with her to enjoy the fortune of which a singular chance had bad put him in possession |