Belonging
to the time between these two periods there were only the order for
the ring (1858), and a little memorandum in pencil, dated "Posen,
Dec., 1859." The last date in Poland was March 18, 1863, and the
permit to embark at Bremen was dated in October of that year.
Here, at least, was a slight chronological framework. The
physician who attended the county almshouse had estimated the man's
age at thirty, which, supposing him to have been nineteen at the
time of receiving the diploma, confirmed the dates to that extent.
I assumed, at the start, that the name which had been so carefully
cut out of all the documents was the man's own. The "Elise" of the
letters was therefore his sister. The first two letters related
merely to "mother's health," and similar details, from which it was
impossible to extract any thing, except that the sister was in some
kind of service. The second letter closed with: "I have enough
work to do, but I keep well. Forget thy disappointment so far
as _I_ am concerned, for I never expected any thing; I don't know
why, but I never did.
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