My mother was quite charmed with the young lady and viewed our attachment with delight.

But when my father heard of the matter he raised a decided objection to it, and ordered me to return to France and join the army.

He had, as I have previously intimated, made his own plans for my future, even to the point of deciding upon a future wife for me, as is customary in France; but I resolutely declined to conform to his wishes in this respect, and my mother quite sided with me.
I never quite knew how he got to hear of my love affair, but I conclude that my mother must have mentioned it to him.

I only stayed a few days in the wonderful metropolis of Egypt; its noises, its cosmopolitanism, its crowds--these, and many other considerations, drove me from the city, and I set out for Singapore.
I had not been many days in that place when, chancing to make inquiries at a store kept by a Mr.Shakespeare, I was casually introduced to a Dutch pearl-fisher named Peter Jensen.

Although I describe him as a Dutch pearler I am somewhat uncertain as to his exact nationality.