There was a very small bundle of papers, carefully tied up, for good
old Papa Péron was nothing if not methodical and neat. There was
nothing in the papers to reveal his identity. With two exceptions they
were absolutely unimportant documents. These, according to Péron's
dying injunctions, Nello committed to the fire. It was the dead man's
wish.
The first exception was a letter addressed to Anita, dated a few weeks
back, no doubt when he had prescience that the end was near. In it he
told her that he had left everything in the world he possessed to her:
the ring set with diamonds, which had not then been pawned, the order
of St. Louis, and the piano. These would give her and her brother a
little capital with which to carry on.
It was a very informal sort of will, although he had taken the
precaution to have his signature witnessed by his landlady. But there
was no next of kin to dispute the document, and Anita was the sole
heiress of his poor possessions--poor from the point of view of money
value.
Two other letters were tied up together, the one addressed to Nello
himself, the other marked "Private" and directed to the Baron Andreas
Salmoros, 510 Old Broad Street, E.C.
The note to Nello, dated a few days after the more or less informal
will, was short but to the point.
Péron informed his protégé, at the time of writing, that his artistic
career still hung in the balance. That even if he achieved a certain
success, his career was an uncertain one. It behoved him therefore to
set his ambitions in other directions which might yield more permanent
results. The letter concluded as follows:
"There yet remains one person in the world who will still
take an interest in me. For the remembrance of those days
long ago, he may prove of service to you when I am gone.
After all is over with me, carry this letter to him yourself.
Trust it to no other hands. Of course you have guessed that
Péron is an assumed name. If the Baron likes to reveal to you
my identity, he will do so. It will matter no longer to me."
Nello gasped, as he laid down the letter. "But dear old Papa Péron
must have been a distinguished man at one time. He speaks of Salmoros
as an old, I should say a great, friend of the long ago. Of course you
do not know who he is."
Anita shook her head. She had never heard of the Baron Andreas
Salmoros. How should she? Absorbed in her domestic cares, she never
read the newspapers.
"But he is one of the greatest financiers in the world," cried Nello
eagerly. "He is only second to the Rothschilds themselves."
And then it suddenly struck him that Salmoros was a very busy man,
that approach to him was difficult. Péron had expressly said that he
was to take the letter to him himself. If Péron had only written a
private note introducing him, a note that could be posted! But the
poor Papa had not thought of that, of course.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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