Page:Honest debtor, or, The virtuous man struggling with, rising superior to, and overcoming misfortune (2).pdf/18

18 ' Monsieur Nervin asked him how it had happened that so prudent a man as he had not forseen and prevented these misfortunes?" _“I did forsee them” replied d'Amene, "and prevented them as far as I could ; for the very day after my daughter's death, I took my measures, and thank heaven. I eave had the consolation of recovering her portion and personal property ; but that is all I was able to save from the wreck, and I left nothing but the shattered remains for the rest of the creditors." ' It was wlth great difficulty that I could contain myself ; but perceiving after he was gone, the impression he had made upon the minds of the notary and his daughter, I could not refrain from vindicating the ho- nourable absent man; but without men- tioning his retreat. “ You have been hear- ing" said I, " this unmerciful father-in-law speak of his son with the most cruel con- tempt. Well every thing he has said about him is true; and is not less true, that this unfortunate young man is innocence and probity itself." This exordium seemed very strange to them, it rivetted their attention, and the father and daughter remaining silent, I related what you have heard. ' Nervin is one of those uncommon cha- racters, that are difficut to be comprehend- ed. Never was there a cooler head or a warm heart. It was a valcano beneath a heap of snow, His daughter on the con-