ht, by instinct, he disliked his brother. He wondered
vaguely was Lord Rotherby in appearance at all like their common father;
but beyond that he gave little thought to the tie that bound them.
Indeed, he has placed it upon record that, saving in such moments
of high stress as followed in their later connection, he never could
remember that they were the sons of the same parent.

"I thought," was Rotherby's greeting, a note almost of irritation in his
voice, "that the woman said you were from France."

It was an odd welcome, but its oddness at the moment went unheeded. His
swift scrutiny of his brother over, Mr. Caryll's glance passed on
to become riveted upon the face of the lady at the table's head. In
addition to the beauties which from above he had descried, he now
perceived that her mouth was sensitive and kindly, her whole expression
one of gentle wistfulness, exceeding sweet to contemplate. What did she
in this galley, he wondered; and he has confessed that just as at sight
he had disliked his brother, so from that hour--from the very instant of
his eyes' alighting on her there--he loved the lady whom his brother was
to wed, felt a surpassing need of her, conceived that in the meeting of
their eyes their very souls had met, so that it was to him as if he
had known her since he had known anything. Meanwhile there was his
lordship's question to be answered. He answered it mechanically, his
eyes upon the lady, and she returning the gaze of those queer, greenish
eyes with a sweetness that gave place to no confusion.

"I am from France, sir."

"But not French?" his lordship continued.

Mr. Caryll fetched his eyes from the lady's to meet Lord Rotherby's.
"More than half French," he replied, the French taint in his accent
growing slightly more pronounced. "It was but an accident that my father
was an Englishman."

Rotherby laughed softly, a thought contemptuously. Foreigners were
things which in his untraveled, unlettered ignorance he despised. The
difference between a Frenchman and a South Sea Islander was a thing
never quite appreciated by his lordship. Some subtle difference he
had no doubt existed; but for him it was enough to know that both were
foreigners; therefore, it logically followed, both were kin.

"Your words, sir, might be oddly interpreted. 'Pon honor, they might!"
said he, and laughed softly again with singular insolence.

"If they have amused your lordship I am happy," said Mr. Caryll in such