Page:Max Havelaar; or, the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company (IA dli.granth.77827).pdf/141

 offices in Switzerland, in the same manner as till now, in a great part of Germany and Italy, this branch of revenue is an appanage of the princes of Tour and Taxis. Hence a large fortune was to be expected; but from some entirely unknown causes, nothing, or very little at least, was handed over to the second generation.

Havelaar did not learn the little that could be known of this matter till after his marriage; and while investigating it, he was surprised that the said writing-desk, with the contents, which she preserved from a feeling of filial love, without knowing that it perhaps contained papers of importance in a financial point of view, had incomprehensibly disappeared. Disinterested as he was, he built on this and many other circumstances the idea that a romantic story was hidden in the background; and one cannot be angry with him that he, who was in want of so much for his style of living, desired that this romance should have a happy end. However this may be, whether there had been spoliation or not, it is certain that in Havelaar’s imagination something was produced which one could call—un rêve aux millions.

It is again strange, that he who would have so carefully examined and, so sharply defended the right of another, though it might have been buried very deep beneath dusky papers and thick-webbed chicanery, here, where his own interest was at stake, carelessly neglected the moment when he ought to have taken the matter up.