Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/332

 discovery of another link in the long line of descent from our times: day after day I was hastening toward the destined end.

A few days after Olav Edial had passed through Salu, on his way to home and happiness, I had advanced so far in my research as to trace the descent of Esna Diotha from the wife of a certain Stewart Estai. The maiden name of the wife was, however, so blurred in the time-eaten record, as to be entirely illegible. Yet that was the important name, the female line alone being the object of my research. As the marriage had taken place at Nuiore, I had no doubt of being able to find a notice of it in some of the daily papers of that city. The lateness of the hour obliged me, however, to defer till the following day a search that might prove long and tedious.

Scarcely had the doors of the institution been opened next morning, when I was on hand, eager to prosecute my search. With hands trembling with anxiety, I placed in the magnifying apparatus the photographic reduction of the files of "The New-York Quidnunc" for that year. At such speed as I required. the magnified copy sped over the screen, the letters enlarged to a size that admitted of their being read at a distance of several yards.

Ah! here at last is the required date. Let us move more slowly, till we reach the heading "Marriages."

Even before I stop the machine, I catch the name Utis. But what is that other name? Can it be possible? Excepting the names, the following is an exact copy of what net my astonished eyes:—