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fere with your amusement long; and in the meantime, believe me, I am sensible of your goodness. It may make matters easier if you take a letter from me to my sister. I am afraid I cannot write myself, but I could dictate--if it be not troubling you too much--there are a pen and ink somewhere there; and if you could give me anything--I still feel rather faint." Graham rose, gave him another cordial, drew a small table to the bedside, and sat down to write. M. Linders considered for a moment, and then began to dictate. "Ma soeur,--We parted five and twenty years ago, with a mutual determination never to see each other again--a resolution which has been perfectly well kept, and which there is no danger of our breaking now, as I shall be in my grave before you read this letter; and you will have the further consolation of reflecting that, as we have never met again in this world, neither is there any probability of our doing so in another----" "Pardon me," said Graham, laying down his pen, as M. Linders dictated these last words, "but you are about to recommend your child to your sister's care; of what use can it be to begin with words that can only embitter any ill-feeling there may have been between you?" "But it is a great consolation I am offering her there," says M. Linders, in his feeble voice. "However, as you will-- _recommencons;_ but no more interruptions, Monsieur, for my strength is not inexhaustible." "Ma soeur,--It is now five and twenty years since we parted, with the determination never to see each other again. Whether we have done well to keep this resolution or not, matters little now; we shall, at any rate, have no temptation in the future to break it, for I shall be in my grave before your receive this letter. I am dying, a fact which may possess some faint interest for you even now--or may not--that is not to the purpose either. It is not of myself that I would speak, but of my child. I am sending her to you, Therese, as to the only relative she has in the world; look on her, if you prefer it, as your mother's only grandchild; we had a mother once who loved me, and whom you professed to love--for her sake be kind to Madelon. I am not rich, and without money I cannot leave her amongst strangers, otherwise I would have found some other means of providing for her; at the same time, I do not send her to you absolutely penniless--she will take to you the sum of three thousand francs, whi
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