" The German looked up. "Yes," said Bonaparte, "I had money, I had
lands; I said to my wife: 'There is Africa, a struggling country; they
want capital; they want men of talent; they want men of ability to open up
that land. Let us go.'
"I bought eight thousand pounds' worth of machinery--winnowing, plowing,
reaping machines; I loaded a ship with them. Next steamer I came out--
wife, children, all. Got to the Cape. Where is the ship with the things?
Lost--gone to the bottom! And the box with the money? Lost--nothing
saved!
"My wife wrote to the Duke of Wellington's nephew; I didn't wish her to;
she did it without my knowledge.
"What did the man whose life I saved do? Did he send me thirty thousand
pounds? say, 'Bonaparte, my brother, here is a crumb?' No; he sent me
nothing.
"My wife said, 'Write.' I said, 'Mary Ann, NO. While these hands have
power to work, NO. While this frame has power to endure, NO. Never shall
it be said that Bonaparte Blenkins asked of any man.'"
The man's noble independence touched the German.
"Your case is hard; yes, that is hard," said the German, shaking his head.
Bonaparte took another draught of the soup, leaned back against the
pillows, and sighed deeply.
"I think," he said after a while, rousing himself, "I shall now wander in
the benign air, and taste the gentle cool of evening.
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