"Sit down. Don't be in a hurry. I will tell you all I can. Of course you will keep secret what I tell you." "Of course! I never talk without good reason. So you have a twin brother?" "Yes; Robert. He is--he--he is not in his right mind." "So I should think from his talk and his extraordinary apparel. A black crape scarf is quite original. By the way, your daughter saw him to-day." "Brenda?" cried Scarse, horrified. "Then she knows----" "Nothing--except that Robert is wonderfully like you. I got him away before she could speak to him. This I did for your sake--and my own!" "You wish to make quite sure of getting Brenda--to force me!" "Not exactly that," smiled Van Zwieten, "since I know that you are already quite willing she should marry me. But I wish to use the knowledge to force her into giving up Burton and becoming my wife." "You would tell her of Robert's existence?" "Not if I could help myself," said the Dutchman, politely. "Believe me, my dear friend, I am very discreet. You can safely confide in me." "It seems I am forced to," grumbled Mr. Scarse, ungraciously. "What is it you particularly wish to know?" "The whole story about your brother, and why you deny him. I am sure it will be most interesting. Go on, please, I am waiting." Mr. Scarse looked at his tyrant savagely. He would dearly have liked to refuse, but he realized that he was on perilous ground. Van Zwieten knew just enough to be dangerous. He must not be allowed to make use of his knowledge, even if he had to be told more. Besides, Mr. Scarse was satisfied that for Brenda's sake he would keep quiet. Therefore he made a virtue of necessity and launched at once into a family history, of which in no other circumstances would he have spoken to any living soul. It was the very fact of the Dutchman's having it in his power to force his confidence that angered him. No man likes to be coerced. "I don't think the story will interest you much," he said, sulkily; "but such as it is, I will relate it. Robert Scarse is my twin brother, and is as like me as it is possible for one man to be like another. His appearance deceived young Burton and the Chippingholt folk." "I know they took him for you. And on account of that scarf they paid you the compliment of thinking you were out of your mind." Mr. Scarse shrugged his shoulders. "As if I cared," he said contemptuously. "My speeches in the House prove that I am sane enough. Well, Robert is my brother, and I was--I am--very fond of him. My sister Julia--Mrs. St. Leger, you know--never liked him, and when we cast him off she made up her mind to regard him as dead. She never even admits that she has a brother. I am her only relative--at least the only one she acknowledges." "And why, pray, was Robert cast off thus, and by his affectionate twin?"