Читать книгу Ralph Osborn, Midshipman at Annapolis. A Story of Life at the U.S. Naval Academy онлайн

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“But, father, were not his letters enclosing the drafts acknowledged; did you not write to him?”

“Of course, but each letter was returned to us.”

“Where were these letters from?”

“From different places; your Uncle George has evidently been a great traveler. During those ten years several of his letters came from New York; two, I think, from Norfolk, Virginia. I remember one came from San Francisco, one from London, and one from Yokohama, Japan.”

“Now isn’t that interesting?” remarked Ralph. “Why, it almost seems like a mystery. Perhaps he’s a millionaire and some time will come to Toledo in his private car. But, father, what is your idea of it all?”

“I don’t know what to think, Ralph; your uncle was very proud as a young man, and my notion is that he has had a hard time of it like the rest of us; that he would come back here for a visit if he could do so in style, but would not like to come back without the evidences of prosperity. But I shall write to him immediately and ask him to visit us. You know he may have a notion that people here imagine he used that two thousand dollars gambling, whereas the fact is the matter was never discussed outside of our family. Twenty years ago people wondered at his departure but none ever learned the cause of it.”