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THE ENGAGEMENT-DINNER
"Will some one/' wailed Mrs. Adair, ' ' make an explanation of these extraordinary proceedings. I'm sure I cant tell an earl from a — a fugitive. I 'm really unstrung. ' '
The Earl cleared his throat, and the look he gave the younger man, who gazed so eagerly at him, was kindly reassuring.
; ' If I may have the indulgence of the ladies and gentlemen here present for a moment," the Earl began, "I shall make an explanation. It is for that purpose I have traveled from England. Many years ago two brothers came from England to wrest a fortune from this America of yours. They had all the other requisites, save only the money — that is, they were allied to the blue blood of the other side. One brother, Seymour by name, was addicted to gambling — and he was not a fortunate one. One day he borrowed large funds from the bank in which the two brothers worked, hoping to recoup the losses he had made and to even up the temporary theft. He lost out. Discovery was
imminent, and just at that time came the announcement that a cousin had died, leaving him next in line to his uncle's earldom. For the sake of the old name — for the pride of blood — because he was, and is, a man thruout each fiber, the younger brother agreed to shoulder the crime and bear the penalty. The older brother went back to England — to flattery and ease and, eventually, to the earldom; the younger brother went — to jail and a penance not his to bear. In me you behold the older brother; in this — this convict — you see the younger — the guiltless one."
"Then." gasped an hysterical voice, "then he is the Earl of Clyde — he really is!" And Mrs. Adair did the graceful thing. She fainted, and was oblivious to the dispersement of her guests — fainted in the happy consciousness that she had stormed Society in the most dramatic way conceivable— stormed it with blue blood and titles — and made an epoch in the "season."
Stephen Peters crept out an old,