Inside the plump-feeling envelope, which was covered over with South
American stamps, there was a note for me, and enclosed in this I found
a pressed flower, a sort of five-petalled star which, though somewhat
faded, was still pink. The flower, my brother wrote, was from a shrub
that had taken root and blossomed beside his window, almost within his
Tahitian hut, which was actually invaded by the luxuriant vegetation
of the region. Oh! with what deep emotion;--with what avidity, if I may
express it thus, did I gaze at and touch the periwinkle which was
almost a fresh and living part of that unknown and distant land, of that
voluptuous nature.

Then I pressed it again with so much care that I possess it intact to
this day.

And after many years, when I made a pilgrimage to the humble dwelling in
which my brother lived during his stay in Tahiti, I saw that the shady
garden surrounding it was rosy with these periwinkles; they had even
pushed their way over the threshold of the door to blossom within the
deserted cabin.




CHAPTER XXXI.



After my ninth birthday my parents, for a time, spoke of putting me into
boarding-school, so that I might become habituated to the harder ways