He cancelled his engagement, took passage on
a little Russian steamer that was bound for Alexandria, and too
impatient to wait for a liner from that port shipped on a freight boat
for Naples. The passage across the Atlantic had been a tempestuous
one, and he had landed in New York two days overdue, with no time to
notify the family of his arrival.
And now after eighteen months of exile in foreign lands he was
actually home again! That is if this resplendent, unfamiliar abode,
full of music and lights and strange servants, could be called home.
However, it was the nearest approach to one he could claim, and the
fact that the fatted calf had not been killed for him, and that the
law waited for him around the corner, did not prevent his pulse
quickening and his lips smiling as he took the side steps two at a
time, and entered the rear hall.
An officious, red-headed man stood in the pantry door with a napkin
over his arm, issuing peremptory orders and regulating the outcoming
and ingoing waiters. "Are you the butler?" asked Donald.
"Not yet," said the man, dropping one eyelid and assuming a
confidential air; "I can see she's after me, though.
Pages:
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261