"
"Does she get acquainted here?" said I, acting on a
principle which I learned from Scipio Africanus at the
Latin School, and so carrying the war into the enemy's
regions promptly. That is to say, I saw I must talk with
this man, and I preferred to have him talk of his own
concerns rather than of mine.
"O sir, I lost her,--I lost her ten years ago! Lived
in New Altoona then. I married this woman the next
autumn, in Vandalia. Yes, Mrs. Joslyn is very well
satisfied here. She sees a good deal of society, and
enjoys very good health."
I said that most people did who were fortunate enough
to have it to enjoy. But Mr. Joslyn did not understand
this bitter sarcasm, far less resent it. He went on,
with sufficient volubility, to give to me his impressions
of the colony,--of the advantages it would derive from
declaring its independence, and then from annexing itself
to the United States. At the end of one of his periods,
goaded again to say something, I asked why he left his
own country for a "colony," if he so greatly preferred
the independent order of government.
Mr. Joslyn looked round somewhat carefully, shut the
door of the room in which we were now alone,--and
were likely, at that hour of the night, to be alone,--and
answered my question at length, as the reader will see.
"Did you ever hear of the lost palace?" said he a
little anxiously.
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