He kept
his ideas secret, but made himself so useful and agreeable to the
strangers, that finally they settled to cast in their lot with his, and
live under the same roof. Before the lapse of many months the news of
Alexis' death reached New Orleans. Moldask noticed the agitation with
which his friends received it, and told them that their secret was his.
They did not attempt a denial; so he offered to sacrifice his private
fortune, throw up his position in New Orleans, and take Carolina back to
Moscow. This offer she would hear nothing of. She thanked Moldask again
and again for his noble generosity, but expressed her fixed
determination not to revisit the scene of all that had been most
unpleasant in her life. She begged him not to betray her secret, and he
readily promised to keep it inviolate. The truth was that he had lost
his heart to the widow of Czar Peter's son. Respect, however, controlled
his feelings. He knew how exalted was her real station compared to his,
and resolved to conceal his love.
Time passed on, and one autumn evening a pararalytic stroke carried off
Carolina's pseudo-father.
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