answer him,
whatever might be the matter, and to fear nothing, as the certainty
even of a misfortune would be a blessing to him in comparison with this
torturing uncertainty.

He wrote without imagining for a moment that Henrietta suffered all the
torments he endured, that their letters were intercepted, and that she
had no more news of him than he had of her.

Time passed, however, carrying with it the evil as well as the good
days. Daniel returned to Saigon, bringing back with him one of the
finest hydrographic works that exist on Cochin China. It was well known
that this work had cost an immense outlay of labor, of privations, and
of life; hence he was rewarded as if he had won a battle, and he was
rewarded instantly, thanks to special powers conferred upon his chief,
reserving only the confirmation in France, which was never refused.

All the survivors of the expedition were mentioned in public orders and
in the official report; two were decorated; and Daniel was promoted
to officer of the Legion of Honor. Under other circumstances, this
distinction, doubly valuable to so young a man, would have made him
supremely happy; now it left him cold.

The fact was, that these long trials had worn out the elasticity of his
heart; and the sources of joy, as well as the sources of sorrow, had
dried up. He no longer struggled against despair, and came to believe
that Henrietta had forgotten him, and would never be his wife. Now, as
he knew he never could love another, or rather as no other existed
for him; as, without Henrietta, the world seemed to him empty, absurd,
intolerable,--he asked himself why he should continue to live. There
were moments in which he looked lovingly at his pistols, and said to
himself,--

"Why should I not spare Sarah Brandon the trouble?"

What kept his hand back was the leaven of hatred which still rose in him
at times. He ought to have the courage, at least, to live long enough to
avenge himself. Harassed by these anxieties, he withdrew more and
more from society; never went on shore; and his comrades on board "The
Conquest" felt anxious as they looked at him walking restlessly up and
down the quarter-deck, pale, and with eyes on fire.

For they loved Daniel. His superiority was so evident, that none
disputed it; they might envy him; but they could never be jealous of
him. Some of them thought he had brought back with him from Kamboja the
germ of one of those implacable diseases which demora