]
[Footnote 5: It was about this time that Mr. Calhoun made his famous
anti-tariff crusade throughout the land, it may be remembered by some of
my readers.]
CHAPTER II.
Before leaving the hospitable roof of General Curzon--beneath which I
tarried for several days--awaiting the tardy sailing of the
packet-steamer Kosciusko, bound for New York, circumstances determined
me to leave in the hands of my host a desk which I had intended to carry
with me, and which contained most of my treasures. First among these,
indisputably, in intrinsic value were my diamonds--"sole remnant of a
past magnificence;" but the miniatures of my father and mother, and
Mabel, in the cases of which locks of twisted hair--brown, and black,
and golden, and gray--were contained and combined (dear, imperishable
memorials of vitality in most instances when all the rest was dust and
ashes), and the early letters of my parents, together with the
carefully-kept diary I had written at Beauseincourt, ranked beyond these
even in my estimation.
The cause of this deposit of valuables was simply owing to the unstable
lock of my trunk, the condition of which was detected too late to have
it repaired before sailing. Madame Curzon had suggested to me the unsafe
nature of such custody for objects of price, if, indeed, I possessed
such at all.
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