No one but you
knows where I live. If I am wrong, excuse me, and accept my
sincere thanks for your past favors...."
What did the letter mean? The present or past favors of the
countess consisted principally of injustice and neglect. Why,
then, this letter of thanks?
When asked for an explanation, Henriette replied that she had
received a letter, through the mails, enclosing two bank-notes of
one thousand francs each. The envelope, which she enclosed with
her reply, bore the Paris post-mark, and was addressed in a
handwriting that was obviously disguised. Now, whence came those
two thousand francs? Who had sent them? And why had they sent
them?
Henriette received a similar letter and a like sum of money twelve
months later. And a third time; and a fourth; and each year for a
period of six years, with this difference, that in the fifth and
sixth years the sum was doubled. There was another difference:
the post-office authorities having seized one of the letters under
the pretext that it was not registered, the last two letters were
duly sent according to the postal regulations, the first dated from
Saint-Germain, the other from Suresnes.
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