IV
Charles and Hélène
America has been transformed with such rapidity, that palaces and cities are now to be found in places where fifty years ago only wild cabins were to be seen. The virgin forests have disappeared, their timid hosts have fled, the mysterious paths have no longer any shade; in their place are seen luxurious villas, gardens, greenhouses, aviaries, tame birds, learned monkeys; the rail-way has killed the trail; liveried servants take tea while saying insolences about their masters, where the Indian squaw was the slave of the warrior, his lord and tyrant.
In one of these sumptuous residences, lived the Saint-Clair family, one of the richest that lived in the vicinity of Saint-Louis.
A young man of twenty-four, the only heir of that name, Charles Saint-Clair, living with
