hich had been torn down the middle, both implicating "Jean" in some way
with the fortunes of the dead man.

The papers belonging to the American phase, so far as they were to be
identified by dates, or by some internal evidence, were fewer, but even
more enigmatical in character. The principal one was a list of addresses
in New York, divided into sections, the street boundaries of which were
given. There were no names, but some of the addresses were marked +, and
others?, and a few had been crossed out with a pencil. Then there were
some leaves of a journal of diet and bodily symptoms, of a very singular
character; three fragments of drafts of letters, in pencil, one of
them commencing, "Dog and villain!" and a single note of "Began work,
September 10th, 1865." This was about a year before his death.

The date of the diploma given by the gymnasium at Breslau was June 27,
1855, and the first date in Poland was May 3, 1861. Belonging to the
time between these two periods there were only the order for the ring
(1858), and a little memorandum in pencil, dated "Posen, Dec., 1859."
The last date in Poland was March 18, 1863, and the permit to embark at
Bremen was dated in October of that year. Here, at least, was a slight
chronological framework. The physician who attended the county almshouse
had estimated the man's age at thirty, which, supposing him to have been
nineteen at the time of receiving the diploma, confirmed the dates to
that extent.

I assumed, at the start, that the name which had been so carefully cut
out of all the documents was the man's own. The "Elise" of the letters
was therefore his sister. The first two letters related merely to
"mother's health," and similar details, from which it was impossible to
extract any thing, except that the sister was in some kind of service.
The second letter closed with: "I have enough work to do, but I keep
well. Forget thy disappointment so far as _I_ am concerned, for I never
expected any thing; I don't know why, but I never did."

Here was a disappointment, at least, to begin with. I made a note of it
opposite the date, on my blank programme, and took up the next letter.
It was written in November, 1861, and contained a passage which keenly
excited my curiosity. It ran thus: "Do, pray, be more careful of thy
money. It may be all as thou sayest, and inevitable, but I dare not
mention the thing to mother, and five thalers is all I can spare out
of my own wages. As for t