Mother, I will tell you a
secret to-day: ever since I can remember having a wish, the one great
desire of my life has been the desire to restore the place and the
name; and I hope to accomplish that desire soon, mother--very soon."
"Victor, this is the talk of a madman!" exclaimed the Frenchwoman,
alarmed by her son's unwonted vehemence.
"No, mother, it is the talk of a man who feels himself on the verge of
a great success--or--a stupendous failure."
"I cannot understand--"
"There is no need for you to understand any more than this: I have been
playing a bold game, and I believe it will prove a winning one."
"Is this game an honest one, Victor?"
"Honest? oh, yes!" answered the surgeon, with an ominous laugh, "why
should I be not honest? Does not the world teach a man to be honest?
See what noble rewards it offers for honesty."
He took a crumpled letter from his pocket as he spoke, and threw it
across the table to his mother.
"Read that, mother," he said; "that is my reward for ten years' honest
toil in a laborious profession. Captain Halkard, the inaugurator of an
Arctic expedition for scientific purposes, writes to invite me to join
his ship as surgeon. He has heard of my conscientious devotion to my
profession--my exceptional talents--see, those are his exact words, and
he offers me the post of ship's surgeon, with a honorarium of fifty
pounds.
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