But I own that I am almost as much influenced by my own conviction that he is in Savandroog.

I quite admit that I can give no reason whatever why, if there is a prisoner there, it should be my father, and yet I cannot get it out of my mind that it is he.

I suppose it is because I have the conviction that I believe in it.

Why should I have that impression so strongly, if it were not a true one?
I tell myself that it is absurd, that I have no real grounds to go upon, and yet that does not shake my faith in the slightest.

It is perhaps because we have been so fortunate.