American fiction -- 19th century; Short stories; Western stories
“That's her name, sonny, but I didn't think that you'd tumble to it
quite as quick as the others. Every new man manages to saunter round
here to get a sight of that receipt, and I've seen hoary old depositors
outside edge around inside, pretendin' they wanted to see the dep, jest
to feast their eyes on that girl's name. Take a good look at it and
paste a copy in your hat, for that's all you'll know of her, you bet.
Perhaps you think she's put her address and her 'at home' days on the
receipt. Look hard and maybe you'll see 'em.”
The instinct of youthful retaliation to say he knew her address already
stirred Randolph, but he shut his lips in time, and moved away. His desk
neighbor informed him that the young lady came there once a month and
drew a hundred dollars from some deposit to her credit, but that was all
they knew. Her name was Caroline Avondale, yet there was no one of that
name in the San Francisco Directory.
But Randolph's romantic curiosity would not allow the incident to rest
there. A favorable impression he had produced on Mr. Dingwall enabled
him to learn more, and precipitated what seemed to him a singular
discovery. “You will find,” said the deputy manager, “the statement
of the first deposit to Miss Avondale's credit in letters in your
own department. The account was opened two years ago through a South
American banker. But I am afraid it will not satisfy your curiosity.”
Nevertheless, Randolph remained after office hours and spent some time
in examining the correspondence of two years ago. He was rewarded at
last by a banker's letter from Callao advising the remittance of one
thousand dollars to the credit of Miss Avondale of San Francisco. The
letter was written in Spanish, of which Randolph had a fair knowledge,
but it was made plainer by a space having been left in the formal letter
for the English name, which was written in another hand, together with
a copy of Miss Avondale's signature for identification--the usual
proceeding in those early days, when personal identification was
difficult to travelers, emigrants, and visitors in a land of strangers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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