“I must make my final arrangements for Russia,” said I. “Shall I see you in the morning? I’m leaving rather early.” “Probably not,” said I. “Then we’ll meet when you come back. We’ll visit Margot at Sothewell Abbey.” She rose, drew herself to her full height with a graceful gesture of triumph. “Don’t you honestly rather like it, being the father of a Marchioness?” I could not speak. I looked at her. “How solemn you are!” laughed she. “Well, good-by, dear.” And she held out her hand and turned her face upward for me to kiss her lips. “Oh, I’ll probably see you in the morning,” I said, “or to-night.” And away I went. * * * * * From Russia I drifted to India, intending to return home by the Pacific. At Bombay I met Lord Blankenship, and he persuaded me to cross to East Africa. I found him a companion exactly to my taste. He was a silent chap having nothing to think about and nothing to think with--a typical and model product of the aristocratic education that completes a man as a sculptor completes an image, and prepares him to stand in his appointed niche until decay tumbles him down as rubbish. I had lost all my former passion for talking and listening. I wished to confine myself--my thoughts--to the trivial matters of the senses, to lingering over and tinkering with the physical details of life. The silent and vacant Blankenship set me a perfect example, one easy to fall into the habit of following. At Paris, I picked up my private secretary, Markham, and resumed attention to my affairs. I had arranged for things to go on without me, when I set out for East Africa. I found that my guess as to how they would go had been correct. For a month or so there was confusion--the confusion that is inevitable when a man who has attended to everything abruptly throws up his leadership. Then the affairs in which he fancied himself indispensable begin to move as well as if he were at the throttle--perhaps better. The most substantial result of my neglect seemed to be that I had become much richer, had more than recovered what my purchase of a son-in-law had cost me.