The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Return of the Prodigal, by May Sinclair

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Title: The Return of the Prodigal

Author: May Sinclair

Release Date: March 10, 2010 [EBook #31595]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE RETURN OF
THE PRODIGAL

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

NEW YORK--BOSTON--CHICAGO
DALLAS--ATLANTA--SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited

LONDON--BOMBAY--CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.

TORONTO

THE RETURN OF
THE PRODIGAL

BY
MAY SINCLAIR

AUTHOR OF "THE DIVINE FIRE," ETC.

New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1914

Copyright, 1914

By MAY SINCLAIR

Set up and electrotyped. Published June, 1914.

CONTENTS

PAGE

THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL 1

THE GIFT 25

THE FAULT 59

WILKINSON'S WIFE 81

MISS TARRANT'S TEMPERAMENT 97

APPEARANCES 153

THE WRACKHAM MEMOIRS 177

THE COSMOPOLITAN 221

THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL

I

"Stephen K. Lepper, Pork-Packing Prince, from Chicago, U. S. A., by
White Star Line, for Liverpool." Such was the announcement with
which the _Chicago Central Advertiser_ made beautiful its list of
arrivals and departures.

It was not exactly a definition of him. To be sure, if you had
caught sight of him anywhere down the sumptuous vista of the
first-class sleeping-saloon of the New York and Chicago Express, you
would have judged it adequate and inquired no more. You might even
have put him down for a Yankee.

But if, following him on this side of the Atlantic, you had found
yourself boxed up with him in a third-class compartment on the
London and North-western Railway, your curios