"Before we go up," replied Minot, "I want you to get Miss Meyrick on the phone and tell her you've returned. Yes--right away. You see--last night I rather misunderstood--I thought you weren't Allan Harrowby after all--and I'm afraid I gave Miss Meyrick a wrong impression." "By gad--I should have told her I was going," Harrowby replied. "But I was so rattled, you know--" He went into a booth. His brief talk ended, he and Minot entered the elevator. Once in his suite, Harrowby dropped wearily into a chair. "Confound your stupid trains. I've been traveling for ages. Now, Minot, I'll tell you what carried me off. Yesterday afternoon I got a message from my brother George saying he was on his way here." "Yes?" "Seems he's alive and in business in Chicago. The news excited me a bit, old boy. I pictured George rushing in here, and the word spreading that I was not to be the Earl of Raybrook, after all. I'm frightfully fond of Miss Meyrick, and I want that wedding to take place to-morrow. Then, too, there's Jephson. Understand me--Cynthia is not marrying me for my title. I'd stake my life on that. But there's the father and Aunt Mary--and considering the number of times the old gentleman has forbidden the wedding already--" "You saw it was up to you, for once." "Exactly. So for my own sake--and Jephson's--I boarded a train for Jacksonville with the idea of meeting George's train there and coming on here with him. I was going to ask George not to make himself known for a couple of days. Then I proposed to tell Cynthia, and Cynthia only, of his existence. If she objected, all very well--but I'm sure she wouldn't. And I'm sure, too, that George would have done what I asked--he always was a bully chap. But--I missed him. These confounded trains--always late. Except when you want them to be. I dare say George is here by this time?" "He is," Minot replied. "Came a few hours after you left. And by the way, I arranged a meeting for him with Trimmer and his proposition. The proposition fled into the night. It seems he was the son of an old servant of your father's--Jenkins by name." "Surely! Surely that was Jenkins! I thought I'd seen the chap somewhere--couldn't quite recall-- Well, at any rate, he's out of the way. Now the thing to do is to see good old George at once--" He went to the telephone, and got his brother's room. "George!" A surprising note of affection crept into his lordship's voice. "George, old boy--this is Allan. I'm waiting for you in my rooms." "Dear old chap," said his lordship, turning away from the telephone. "Twenty-three years since he has seen one of his own flesh and blood! Twenty-three years of wandering in this God-forsaken country--I beg your pardon, Minot. I wonder what he'll say to me. I wonder what George will say after all those years."