Second Part Chapter 55

Louis' widow, the handsome woman whom you took for your rival, arrived
in Paris with two children--your nephews--and an empty purse, her
mother's jewels having barely sufficed to pay for bringing them over.
The instructions which Louis Gaston had given the banker for sending
the money to his brother enabled the widow to find your husband's
former home. As Gaston had disappeared without leaving any address,
Mme. Louis Gaston was directed to d'Arthez, the only person who could
give any information about him.

D'Arthez was the more ready to relieve the young woman's pressing
needs, because Louis Gaston, at the time of his marriage four years
before, had written to make inquiries about his brother from the
famous author, whom he knew to be one of his friends. The Captain had
consulted d'Arthez as to the best means of getting the money safely
transferred to Marie, and d'Arthez had replied, telling him that
Gaston was now a rich man through his marriage with the Baronne de
Macumer. The personal beauty, which was the mother's rich heritage to
her sons, had saved them both--one in India, the other in Paris--from
destitution. A touching story, is it not?

D'Arthez naturally wrote, after a time, to tell your husband of the
condition of his sister-in-law and her children, informing him, at the
same time, of the generous intentions of the Indian Gaston towards his
Paris brother, which an unhappy chance had frustrated. Gaston, as you
may imagine, hurried off to Paris. Here is the first ride accounted
for. During the last five years he had saved fifty thousand francs out
of the income you forced him to accept, and this sum he invested in
the public funds under the names of his two nephews, securing them
each, in this way, an income of twelve hundred francs. Next he
furnished his sister-in-law's rooms, and promised her a quarterly
allowance of three thousand francs. Here you see the meaning of his
dramatic labors and the pleasure caused him by the success of his
first play.